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The Earth Observer. July - August 2009. Volume 21, Issue 4.

Editor’s Corner Steve Platnick ebra el t c in EOS Senior Project Scientist – Acting g

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On June 22-24 the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and • e

the National Academy of Sciences hosted a symposium called NASA Earth System Sci- t

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r e ence at 20: Accomplishments, Plans, and Challenges (ESS@20) that took place at the Na- a tional Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC. This event was a chance to focus 1989 2 on the past, present, and future of Earth System Science. The meeting featured a retrospective on the twenty-year history of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program that began with the publication of the landmark Bretherton report in 1988. It also included a look ahead to the future of Earth System Science, with particular emphasis on the importance of maintaining satellite data continuity in the coming years. In his closing remarks, Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy, noted the importance of interagency collaborations in addressing climate and other Earth Science issues, and stressed that effective outreach and communication are key complements to all Earth Science research. A summary of the symposium is being planned for an upcoming issue. continued on page 2 the earth observer

Rising above the two lightning towers around the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, a Delta IV rocket races into the sky carrying the GOES-O satellite into orbit. Photo credit: NASA/ Kim Shiflett. www.nasa.gov 02 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) that describe eos.nasa.gov the evolution of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Rama has been involved with EOSDIS since its inception and thus is well qualified to reflect on the history of the program. In This Issue As you might imagine, creating a system that successfully distributes over 150 million data product files each Editor’s Corner Front Cover year wasn’t without its hiccups and Rama shares some of that rocky road. He tells us about how EOSDIS was Feature Articles conceived and the ongoing struggle between engineers EOS Data and Information System (designers) and scientists (users) to seek out what Rama (EOSDIS): Where We Were and calls the Goldilocks compromise—i.e., the data system Where We Are, Part I 4 that was “just right” for all involved. We hope you en- Operation Ice Bridge: A Journal of joy this article about the design and implementation My Expedition to Greenland 12 of a world-class data and information system. (Look HITRAN: A History 20 for the conclusion of Rama’s article in our September– NASA “Treks” to Iowa for Problem- October issue.) Solving Competition 22 Two more EOS milestones were recently achieved. June

editor's corner Meeting/Workshop Summaries 19 marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the NASA’s contribution to the Group on Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) mission. QuikSCAT Earth Observations (GEO) Global carried a SeaWinds instrument into orbit and was de- Agricultural Monitoring System signed to be a “quick recovery,” to fill in the data gap of Systems 24 that occurred when the Japanese Midori [also called the NASA LCLUC Spring Science Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS)] satellite, Team Meeting Summary 30 on which the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) flew, lost CERES Science Team power suddenly in June 1997. QuikSCAT was designed Meeting Summary 34 to have a three-year lifespan, but ten years after launch, the vector wind data that QuikSCAT gathers over the In The News oceans in all-weather conditions continue to be used by First Take: Data Users Line Up to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Give On-Camera Earth (NOAA) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Observation Testimonials 38 Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for operational use. South Carolina Wildfire Offers Langley Researchers Close-up Look at Smoke 40 Also, July 15 marked the 5th anniversary of the launch NASA, Japan Release Most Complete of Aura. The high vertical resolution profiles of the Topographic Map of Earth 42 atmosphere that Aura makes have been critical to under- Satellites Guide Relief to Earthquake standing ozone, air quality, atmospheric chemistry, and Victims 43 climate change. In October 2007, a change in orbit was initiated, moving Aura closer to Aqua in the Afternoon Regular Features Satellite “A-Train” Constellation. To read about some EOS Scientists in the News 44 of Aura’s notable science highlights, visit: aura.gsfc.nasa. NASA Science Mission Directorate— gov/science/auratop10.html. You can also read a summary Science Education Update 46 of the last Aura Science Team meeting in our January- Science Calendars 47 February 2009 [Volume 21, Issue 1, pp. 41-42] issue. The Earth ObserverInformation/Inquiries The next meeting is planned for September 2009. Con- Back Cover gratulations to both the QuikSCAT and Aura Teams on their achievements!

On June 27 at 6:51 PM, the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, was Our ongoing Perspectives on EOS series has endeavored launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force to chronicle the history of EOS, including personal ac- Station in Florida aboard a Delta IV rocket. GOES-O counts by those involved in its early implementation. is the second in the GOES-N series of geostationary In this issue, we continue our series with the first of environmental weather satellites launched by NASA for two articles from H. K. “Rama” Ramapriyan from NOAA. NOAA manages the GOES program which The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 03 provides severe weather information for meteorolo- Ice Bridge (OIB). His experience, entitled Operation gists and the public. GSFC procures the spacecraft and Ice Bridge: A Journal of My Expedition to Greenland, manages their design, development and launch. (Upon is on page 12 of this issue. This journal complements reaching geosynchronous orbit at 89.5° W longitude on blogs featured in past issues, such as Lora Koenig’s July 8, 2009 NASA transferred operations to NOAA stay at Summit Camp, Greenland [Volume 21, Issues and GOES-O name was changed to GOES 14.) Con- 2 and 3] and the Arctic Research of the Composi- gratulations to the NASA/NOAA team on another suc- tion of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites cessful launch! (ARCTAS) campaign [Volume 20, Issues 4 and 6]. These firsthand accounts of research in the Arctic not On the education and outreach front, as it has for the only give unique (and often entertaining) perspectives past eight years, the Earth Observing System Project on the challenges of doing science research in remote Science Office (EOSPSO) sponsored an Odyssey of environments, but they also highlight the importance the Mind (OM) long-term problem. Students exam- of studying the polar regions, where the impacts of ined environmental change in this Earth Trek problem climate change are expected to be the most significant. by building a “vehicle” that changed as it traveled to four locations. EOSPSO staff members “trekked” to Finally, I’m pleased to announce the recently released Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa for this year’s OM video production, The Dynamic Earth: NASA Observes World Finals. More details on the competition and Our Ever-Changing Planet. This 17–minute video pro- NASA’s presence there are featured in an article on page vides a brief introduction to Earth System Science 22 of this issue. and NASA’s role in observing and studying our chang- editor's corner ing planet. The video is available for viewing on the I’d like to mention two multimedia-related items EOSPSO website (eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/) or can be down- of interest. To gather information for an upcoming loaded from: eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_edu- video on NASA’s Airborne Science Program, Chris cators/educational_dvd.php. At the latter link, you’ll also Chrissotimos made the long journey to Greenland to find links to the video’s acronym and glossary lists, and observe an aircraft field experiment called Operation video weblinks to other NASA Earth Science sites.

May 2, 2009 May 3, 2009

In Santa Barbara County, a wildfire, called the Jesusita fire, ignited on May 5, 2009, in the Cathedral Peak area northwest of Mission Canyon. As of midday May 8, the fire, which was 10% contained, had scorched 3,500 acres, damaged or destroyed 75 structures, and had forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

The images above show soil moisture change in the top soil layer (2-in deep) on May 2–3, 2009, as measured by the NASA QuikSCAT satellite scatterometer (radar). On May 2, rainwater increased the amount of moisture in the soil by a modest 4%. However, by the next day QuikSCAT revealed that whatever rainwater had accumulated earlier quickly dried up over the whole area. This is indicated by the lighter shades of grey in the image from May 3. (To view these images in color please visit: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12006.)

The rapid dry-up in Santa Barbara together with high winds and unusually high temperatures contributed to the devastating Jesusita fire. Quik- SCAT can provide soil moisture information that is critical to enhance the capability for Red Flag Warning and to improve the National Fire Danger Rating System. Credit: NASA/JPL/QuikSCAT Science Team. 04 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS): Where We Were and Where We Are, Part I H. K. Ramapriyan (Rama), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]

Over 150 million data product files are This article continues our ongoingPerspectives on EOS series. To date, the being sent to hundreds articles in this series have shared perspectives from a number of Earth Observ- of thousands of users ing System (EOS) “pioneers,”—scientists and managers who were personally each year and people involved in the early days of the program and actually involved in making what continue to view we now view as EOS history. Along the way, we’ve also learned something EOSDIS favorably. about the difficult political journey EOS faced as it progressed from inspiring idea to concrete reality.

But there are still more facets of the tale of EOS that need to be told. One of those is the story behind the development of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Our EOS satellites beam back reams of data and information about the condition of Earth every single day, but this information would be all but useless without an effective system to efficiently process it all and make it readily available for use in science research and appli- featured articles featured cations. Today EOSDIS processes over 150 million data products each year, but the journey to making EOSDIS the world-class data and information system it is today has been long and sometimes difficult—and the details of this journey make for a compelling story.

The Earth Observer asked H. K. “Rama” Ramapriyan of Goddard Space Flight Center to share some of the details of this story with us and he graciously agreed. Rama has been involved in the EOSDIS program since its inception and is thus well qualified to reflect on its history. (This article is the first of two planned articles from Rama—the second should appear in our September– October issue.)

Introduction

My involvement with the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) started in early 1989, almost two years before the U.S. Congress approved the EOS Program as a New Start. Having been involved with the program for so long, it is a little difficult to be brief and select a few things to say about the program. However, I will try to put down some of my salient memories of where we were when we got started, where we are now and how we got here. Of course, it goes without saying that any opinions expressed here are my own and not those of NASA or any of the many others who have influenced, managed, used, reviewed or otherwise thought about EOSDIS. In fact, there are differences in points of view about what EOSDIS is—so it is important to clarify what I mean when I refer to EOSDIS. For purposes of this discussion, I will define EOSDIS as consisting of all the components being funded by NASA’s Earth Science Data System Program through the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at Goddard1. These are: twelve Data

1 When the EOS Program began, the responsibility for developing and operating the mission systems—the systems needed for spacecraft and instrument control, data capture, and initial (Level 0) processing—was with the ESDIS Project as well. After the development was completed and Terra was launched, the responsibility for maintaining and operating the mission systems transferred to the newly formed Earth Science Mission Operations (ESMO) Project. So, while I will briefly mention mission systems to set the overall context, the focus of this article is on the science systems. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 05

Centers2 [Distributed Active Archive Cen- ters (DAAC)], three of which are using the EOSDIS Core System (ECS) in their operations, nine Science Investigator- led Processing Systems (SIPS), the EOS Clearing House (ECHO), and the net- Anyone who knows works needed for data flows among these. the history of EOSDIS knows there were times Today, EOS standard products are being when the community produced regularly, archived in the data had very strong doubts centers, and being ordered or accessed about our ability to by a broad user community around the achieve this degree world. In fact, over 150 million data of success, so this is a product files (see Figure 1) are being sent to hundreds of thousands of users tribute to all of the hard each year and people continue to view work done to make this EOSDIS favorably3. Anyone who knows system a reality. the history of EOSDIS knows there were times when the community had H. K. “Rama” Ramapriyan very strong doubts about our ability to achieve this degree of success, so this is a tribute to all of the hard work done to make this system a reality. articles featured

Today, NASA’s Earth Science Data System Program, led by Martha Maiden [NASA HQ], is a mix of Core and Community capabilities that complement each other to provide balance between stability and innovation. EOSDIS as defined above is a significant part of the Core capabilities. All the data system related activities that are selected via peer-reviewed proposals are Community capabilities. I have been fortunate

2 The terms Data Center and DAAC are used somewhat interchangeably. Originally, there were nine DAACs. They were reduced to eight in 1995 after NASA’s Zero Base Review. Some of the organizations chose names that were more descriptive of the disciplines assigned to them. In 2004–2008, three organizations that were not in the original list of DAACs were added to the list funded by the EOSDIS budget. These were the Ocean Data Processing System (ODPS) under the Ocean Biology Processing Group, MODIS Adaptive Processing System/Level 1 and Atmosphere Archiving and Distribution System (MODAPS/LAADS), and the Crustal Dynamics Data and Information System (CDDIS). In the light of these changes, we have started to use the more general term EOSDIS Data Centers. 3 An annual American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey conducted since 2004 by the Claes Fornell International (CFI) Group, an independent entity that surveys various industrial and government organizations, has consistently rated EOSDIS significantly higher than “Overall Federal Government” same as or higher than “Overall (Public and Private Sectors.)”

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140 Figure 1. Millions of files distributed from EOSDIS data 120 centers to users.

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0 FY96 FY97 FY98 FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 06 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

to be involved in both of these “camps.” What follows is a discussion of the Core and Community capabilities from a historical perspective. The organization of this article is not strictly chronological. However, the first part of this two-part series generally covers the period until the start of the EOSDIS Core System (ECS) contract. The second part will discuss the system’s evolution beyond that time to the present and the Com- munity capabilities.

Conceiving of an EOSDIS – 1980s

People began thinking about EOSDIS in the mid-1980s—not long after the wide- spread use of punched cards had become obsolete. At that time the VT 100 interactive When our discussions terminal was in vogue as the device with which to submit jobs to run on comput- began in the mid- ers. Very few people had heard of the Internet. The World Wide Web as we know it today was yet to be created. Despite this, a group of forward-looking thinkers (the 1980s, the VT 100 EOS Data Panel chaired by Robert Chase) got together and thought about what the interactive terminal was characteristics of a data system to serve Earth science for the next two decades should in vogue as the device be. These thoughts were published in a black cover report called the Report of the EOS with which to submit Data Panel [NASA Technical Memorandum 87777, NASA, 1986]. While some of the jobs to run on comput- specific numbers used in the report are quite trivial today (e.g., 10,000 users; 9,600 ers. Very few people had bits per second communications links), the design principles and architectural con- heard of the Internet. siderations (e.g., modularity, adaptive flexibility, evolvability) are still valuable and featured articles featured The World Wide Web as worthy of occasional rereading. we know it today was yet to be created. NASA conducted the Phase A studies for EOSDIS in the mid-1980s, followed by Phase B studies by two major aerospace contractors (Hughes Aircraft and TRW) during 1989 and 1990. Al Fleig was the Data System Manager from Goddard’s Flight Projects Di- rectorate (Code 400) at the time, and he funded these studies. Strat Laios and Curt Schroeder of the Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate (old Code 500) directed them. I was the lead for the Science Data Processing Segment (SDPS) at that time. The studies had to be independent so that one company’s conclusions would not be affected by the other. We used to have regular weekly meetings with each company separately. We went to great lengths to ensure independence and fairness. The purpose of the studies was to define what the requirements for EOSDIS should be, to determine how much it should cost, and to help prepare an integrated presentation package for the upcoming Non-Advocacy Review (NAR) of the EOS Program.

While the Phase B studies were in progress, an All-Hands meeting of the Investigators’ Working Group (IWG) took place at Goddard March 20-24, 1989. The IWG consisted of Interdisciplinary Principal Investigators (PIs), Instrument PIs, Team Leaders, and Team Members, all of whom NASA selected through the EOS Announcement of Opportunity. We had to take advantage of the presence of all these people at Goddard to gather their thoughts on requirements—e-mail communication was not nearly as common 20 years ago. We had several interview teams that consisted of representatives from Goddard and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) staff as well as the two Phase B contractors—the interview teams asked IWG participants to fill out a long ques- tionnaire. It was important at that time to figure out “how big” EOSDIS had to be as well as what it had to do (especially for long lead time items such as construction of facilities and contract procurements).

In one of the introductory talks where Al Fleig explained to the IWG the interview process, he mentioned that we needed to know how much computing capacity we needed, whether we needed the equivalent of several Cray-Y’s or even “Cray-Z’s” of the future! Of course, looking back on this now, it seems laughable that we were worried about the biggest known requirement of those days—1.5 gigaflops for data assimilation. It was during this All-Hands meeting that the Science Advisory Panel for Eos Data and Information, a.k.a. the EosDIS Advisory Panel or Data Panel of the IWG was formed. It is worth quoting a few sentences to show what the science community and The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 07 the Data Panel were thinking about EOSDIS at the time. (Note that EOS was still called Eos at that time).

“Crucial to the success of the Eos is the EosDIS. The goals of Eos depend not only on its instruments and science investigations, but also on how well EosDIS helps scientists integrate reliable, large-scale datasets of geophysical and biological measurements made from Eos data, and on how successfully Eos scientists interact with other investigations in Earth System Science.”

“EosDIS must:

• adhere to a flexible, distributed, portable, evolutionary design; • distribute data products by appropriate high-bandwidth communication or In a very real sense, other media; EOSDIS is not a col- 4 • operate prototypes in a changing experimental environment.” lection of hardware and software, it is a ‘place’ During Phase A and early in the Phase B studies, the concept was to have an analog of where scientists commu- the Central Data Handling Facility (CDHF) that was used in the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) Program, except that we were to have two CDHF’s—one nicate with each other at Goddard and one at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources and Observation and with the data they Science (EROS) Data Center in Sioux Falls. The Data Panel regarded this to be too have collected with the centralized an approach for Eos and pressed on the idea that a much more distributed help of their professional architecture was required. An important reason for distribution was to take advantage colleagues from the engi- articles featured of existing expertise in Earth science disciplines as well as data management at various neering and operations institutions across the U.S. disciplines.

In addition to the push for a more decentralized structure, from the very beginning there were differences between the engineering (designers’) view and the science (custom- ers’) view of EOSDIS that had to be resolved. The engineering view was that EOSDIS was a “thing” to be built with a well-established set of requirements and specifications, involving hardware, software, and operations personnel. Its purpose was to meet the EOS missions’ requirements as well as to serve the user community. The view of the science community was best expressed by the Data Panel:

“This view that EOSDIS is a ‘thing’, a piece of hardware, supported by software, seems fundamentally mistaken. In a very real sense, EOSDIS is not a collection of hardware and software, it is a ‘place’ where scientists communicate with each other and with the data they have collected with the help of their professional colleagues from the engineering and operations disciplines. At about the time of launch, EOSDIS also will have to include a capability to process, store, and make visible large streams of data. It may even be correct to view EOSDIS as the place where the scientists produce information to be used by other scientists. As one of the Panel Members stated, EOSDIS must be run by scientists for scientists.” 5

RAACs – or should they be DAACs?

NASA accepted the recommendation to have a more distributed system. By this time, the Non-Advocacy Review (NAR) of EOS and EOSDIS had been completed and NASA had set up a new organization called the EOS Ground System and Opera- tions Project (Code 423) headed by Tom Taylor, formerly the Data System Manager for UARS. Tom hired me as the Deputy Project Manager for the project. Given his experience with the Remote Analysis Centers (RACs) of UARS, we came up with the name Remote Active Archive Center (RAAC) for the distributed components of EO- 4 Initial Scientific Assessment of the Eos Data and Information System, Science Advisory Panel for Eos Data and Information, NASA, Eos-89-1, 1989; report written in September 1989, soon after the Preliminary Requirements Review and Preliminary System Design Review by the two Phase B contractors 5 Panel’s Comments on the EOSDIS Final System Design Review (of the two Phase B contractors), February 12-16, 1990 08 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

SDIS responsible for the processing, archiving and distribution of data. Dixon But- ler6, the Program Manager at NASA HQ (and in many ways the “father” of EOSDIS) named the specific RAACs based on specific Earth science discipline expertise and some “political imperatives” for geographic distribution.

I recall a meeting with the Data Panel and the managers of the newly named RAACs where we were discussing the status of EOSDIS. The Data Panel emphasized the fact that we had a considerable amount of Earth science data already, and we should take advantage of this to learn how to design and implement EOSDIS. The data at the RAACs could be made more easily available to the user community. The initial version of EOSDIS that would do this was called Version 0 EOSDIS or simply V0. In the same meeting, Roger Barry from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Given all the infra- asked us to change the name RAAC, since the word remote was not appropriate. He structure that had been said: “We are not remote to ourselves!” Hence the name was changed to Distributed Ac- built, and the data tive Archive Center (DAAC). and metadata that had been prepared, it was Version 0 easy to respond to this concern, and within We started out with nine DAACs7—they included the Alaska Synthetic Aperture three months we had a Radar (SAR) Facility (ASF), EROS Data Center (EDC), Goddard Space Flight Cen- web-based interface for ter (GSFC), JPL, Langley Research Center (LaRC), Marshall Space Flight Center featured articles featured V0 in place. (MSFC), NSIDC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Socio-Economic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Our first job was to facilitate establishment of the DAACs as organizations within their host institutions, set goals and success criteria for V0, coordinate with the DAACs technically to make sure that their data catalogs were interoperable at an inventory level—meaning “one-stop shopping” to find and obtain specific data files (or groups of related files, known asgranules), and establish implementation plans, budgets, and schedules. Gail McConaughy, the Proj- ect’s System Manager (and Architect), was responsible for the technical aspects of the implementation and I had the responsibility for the managerial aspects. McConaughy coined the phrase “Working Prototype with Operating Elements” to describe V0. We set a target date of August 31, 1994 as the date for V0 to go operational. Dixon Butler regarded this as “a moral equivalent of launch” as far as strict adherence to schedule was concerned. Also, given the broadening of responsibility from managing the EOS data when they arrived to managing most of NASA’s Earth science data, the name of the Project was changed from the EOS Ground System Project to the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project. Even though the system has retained the name EOSDIS (to be in line with the name of the Congressional appropriation language), the Project continues to be called ESDIS to this day.

Key aspects of V0 development included: (1) modernizing the data holdings at the DAACs; (2) creating metadata databases at the DAACs; (3) developing an interoperability layer (a small amount of software) at each of the DAACs; (4) developing a V0 Information Management System (V0 IMS) and a user interface to help users to perform cross-DAAC searches for data. We emphasized involvement of the scientific users by funding individuals to “kick the tires” of the system as it was being developed—these people were called tire kickers. They assessed the system and user interfaces as they evolved and made many useful recommendations. The system was ready as planned in August 1994. By this time, the World Wide Web had become available and was growing rapidly. The potential users of V0—the scientists, profes- 6 Butler wrote an earlier article in the Perspectives series entitled: “The Early Beginnings of EOS: “System Z” Lays the Groundwork for a Mission to Planet Earth” [Volume 20, Issue 5, pp. 4-7.] 7 During NASA’s Zero-Base Review in 1995, the DAAC at MSFC was removed from the program. MSFC collaborated with the University of Alabama in Huntsville and other educational institutions to form the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC). The Global Hydrol- ogy Resource Center (GHRC) within GHCC continued to perform some of the functions per- formed by the DAAC. Other functions were distributed to the other DAACs. In 2009, GHRC was brought back into EOSDIS as a DAAC. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 09 sors at universities and their graduate students—were getting used to the web and expressed disappointment that the V0 IMS interface was not web-based. Given all the infrastructure that had been built, and the data and metadata that had been prepared, it was easy to respond to this concern, and within three months we had a web-based interface for V0 in place. The V0 IMS served a general user community not neces- sarily aware of where the data of interest were held. However, it was an encumbrance for users who were already familiar with the location of the data, because it provided many options the users had to choose from before finding the data of interest. To accommodate such users, the DAACs developed simpler and more tailored interfaces.

Just as important as the technical aspects of V0 discussed above were the social and administrative aspects. We developed a general charter for the DAAC User Working There was anxiety, Groups (DUWGs) to ensure that each DAAC had a group of representative users to assess its progress and priorities periodically (at least once a year). The charter was then concern, anger, and tailored to the individual DUWGs. A User Services Working Group was established to misconception about the ensure cross-DAAC communication and coordination in user services. Regular com- formatting issue that munication mechanisms—e.g., weekly telecons and periodic face-to-face meetings of was akin to what one the DAAC Managers and the ESDIS Project—were established. Coordinated outreach of my colleagues called processes were set up. All of these are continuing and functioning well to this day. “religious wars.”

Data Format Wars featured articles featured Also during the years of V0 development, in collaboration with the DAACs, we conducted a study of formats commonly used in Earth science with the intention of establishing a standard format to be used for representing EOS data. These were not just formats in the sense of rules for arranging bits, but formatting systems with support tools. The idea was that using one format (formatting system) would make it economical to provide an extensive set of tools and services for using and manipulat- ing data. No format available at the time met all the requirements we had listed, but the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois came quite close. So we selected HDF as the distribution format for V0 data to get some experience with HDF, while recognizing that the data that were previously in various other formats that would need to be supported in their native formats. There was anxiety, concern, anger, and misconception about the formatting issue that was akin to what one of my colleagues called “religious wars.” Some people thought we would actually convert all of the old Earth science data into HDF. The HDF and a more particularized version of it called HDF EOS have been used for producing and storing most of the EOS data products. In addition, today translations into many other commonly used formats are being supported. I still occasionally hear complaints from some users about HDF, but for the most part users seem quite satisfied with the format and the tools that go with it.8

The Big Contracts

In parallel with the V0 development, the ESDIS Project was designing two major subsystems to satisfy the requirements for “big” data flows from the EOS missions. The EOS Data and Operations System (EDOS) would be developed for data capture and initial (Level 0) processing of the satellite telemetry through a contract awarded to TRW in 1994. Meanwhile, in 1993 Hughes (which later became Raytheon) received a contract to develop the ECS. ECS would satisfy the remaining requirements: the Flight Operations Segment (FOS) would handle spacecraft and instrument operations while the Science Data Processing Segment (SDPS) would handle processing, archiving, and distribution of the data from the EOS instruments. There was an extended blackout period from 1991–1993 for the procurement of the contract

8 Of the 2763 users who responded to the ACSI survey in 2008 referred to previously [see Foot- note 3], 41% indicated that HDF/HDF EOS was their preferred format, with the next highest preferences being for GeoTIFF (20%), NetCDF (8%), ASCII (8%) … 10 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

for ECS. During that time, with the exception of a few civil servant scientists, the scientific user community had to be kept in the dark about the procurement (i.e., requirements, evaluation criteria, status, etc.) in order to comply with regulations.

The first exposure the community had to ECS after the procurement blackout and contract award came during the System Requirements Review in August 1993. The review took place in Goddard’s Building 8 auditorium to accommodate all interested individuals, and it was a full house. (The Data Panel was present, chaired by Jeff Dozierwho had previously served as EOS Senior Project Scientist.) Some key events at that meeting highlighted the mood of that meeting and underscored the differences in thinking between the contractor, as well as NASA’s engineering managers, and the science community. Almost immediately after the welcoming Clearly, NASA did not logistics announcements, came a presentation by Marsh Caplan, the Hughes Program have a requirements Manager. Before Caplan got through his first few slides, Dozier asked him a question colonel but rather about the evolutionary requirements. While the Hughes presenters were detailing wanted to have the sci- requirements for the system with an assumed architecture, the questions from the Panel ence community provide were directed towards how changes would be accommodated. One of the presenters input on requirements. said he came from a military software development background where if a question about a requirement came up he would go to a colonel for clarification and he would get an answer. Clearly, NASA did not have a requirements colonel but rather wanted to have the science community provide input on requirements. featured articles featured As the assumed architecture was discussed, the Panel asked how NASA and Hughes would ensure that the system was distributed. While we argued the system was indeed distributed (given the nine DAACs we had at that time), the Panel objected to its being merely geographically dispersed rather than logically distributed (i.e., they objected to the development’s leading to a single system that would be replicated at each DAAC.) Also, given the size of the contract, some members of the Panel were expecting the contractor to have been ready with a system “that would knock our socks off” at the beginning of the contract, even though as a cost plus awards fee contract, the work on the contract would not begin until the contract was in place.

When the ECS contract began, the intention of the ESDIS Project was to place a version of ECS at each of the DAACs and migrate all of the data managed by V0 to the ECS. However, soon after the start of the contract, it became clear that this was neither necessary nor desirable to do. The four DAACs (ASF, JPL PO.DAAC, ORNL DAAC and SEDAC) that did not have major data flows from EOS instruments were removed from the ECS requirements, and would develop and maintain their own V0- based systems to archive and distribute data within their responsibility. The remaining four DAACs (GSFC, LaRC, LP DAAC at EDC, and NSIDC) were to have hardware and software developed and installed by the ECS contractor.

Concluding Remarks (Part 1)

In this part of the two-part series, we have seen how the concept of EOSDIS origi- nated over 20 years ago, some of the concerns that the science community had, how the name DAAC came into being, the development of Version 0 EOSDIS, and the beginning of the ECS contract. In the next part we will cover the numerous reviews of EOSDIS, some of the hurdles encountered and the remedies that led to a successful deployment of EOSDIS, the evolution of Community capabilities, and the most recent evolution of the Core capabilities. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 11

NASA Honor Awards Recipients—Langley Research Center

The Earth Observer would like to congratulate the 2009 Langley Research Center (LaRC) Science Directorate recipients of the NASA Honor Awards. The recipients listed are involved in LaRC Earth Science activities.

NASA’s most prestigious honor awards are approved by the Administrator and presented to a number of carefully selected individuals and groups of individuals, both Government and non-Government, who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency’s mission. For a complete description of each award, please visit: nasapeople.nasa.gov/awards/nasamedals.htm.

Distinguished Public Service Medal Thomas A. Evert[Northrop Grumman Space Technology— Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument development] featured articles featured Distinguished Service Medal Bruce A. Wielicki [Climate Science Branch]

Exceptional Achievement Medal Xu Liu [Chemistry & Dynamics Branch] Pamela L. Rinsland [Atmospheric Science Data Center]

Exceptional Public Service Medal William H. Hunt [Science Systems and Applications, Inc.— Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite (CALIPSO) Lidar]

Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal Kuan-Man Xu [Climate Science Branch]

Exceptional Service Medal Lin H. Chambers [Climate Science Branch] Richard S. Eckman [Chemistry & Dynamics Branch] James K. Geiger [Chemistry & Dynamics Branch] Syed Ismail [Chemistry & Dynamics Branch] Martin G. Mlynczak [Climate Science Branch]

Outstanding Leadership Medal James H. Crawford [Chemistry & Dynamics Branch] Gary G. Gibson [Climate Science Branch] Lelia B. Vann [Science Directorate]

Group Achievement Award LaRC NPOESS Atmospheric Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) Team—EAQUATE NASA Langley Optical Active-passive Remote Sensing Instrument Suite (OASIS) Team—San Joaquin Valley AMI Field Mission Surface Ozone Protocol for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Team—Creation of environmental learning tool announcement 12 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

Operation Ice Bridge: A Journal of My Expedition to Greenland Chris Chrissotimos, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]

Hi, my name is Chris Chrissotimos. I work for the Earth Observing System Project Science Office (EOSPSO). I am working on a project to create a video for NASA’s Airborne Science Program that features an overview of the program and highlights some of the program’s recent efforts and upcoming science campaigns. This past April I had the opportunity to travel to Greenland to observe an aircraft field experiment called Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) and gather some footage for the video. The purpose of the OIB campaign is to “bridge” the potential data gaps between the end of the Ice, Clouds, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) I mission and the launch of the ICESat II satellite mission currently planned for 2015. The campaign took place March 30–May 10, 2009 and was based out of Thule, Greenland. NASA was actively involved in this campaign with participants from Wallops Flight Facility (Wallops), Dryden Flight Research Center, Ames Research Center [Earth Science Project Office (ESPO)], and Goddard Space Flight Center. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration (NOAA), the University of Kansas, and the University of Alaska also participated.

During the campaign a series of science flights over Greenland, Alaska, and the Arctic Ocean took place. The aircraft were equipped with airborne lidar and radar sensors to measure sea ice thickness and glacial ice thickness, and sub-glacial lakes— information which can be used to verify similar measurements that ICESat makes. Another campaign will also be flown this fall focusing on science flights over the Antarctic Ocean and Antarctica. featured articles featured

What follows is a journal of my experiences on the campaign from April 15–24. To find out more about Operation Ice Bridge please visit the NASA news article at www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland_flights.html, and at the Ames ESPO homepage at www.espo.nasa.gov/oib/.

April 15, 2009 Hurry up and wait!

Today was a runaround! Between packing for the trip and grabbing video equipment the day flew by in what seemed like a few seconds…and before I knew it, it was time to leave for the airport. I arrived at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) for my flight as per instructions at 9:30 PM—even though the flight was not supposed to leave until 2:00 AM the following morning. Time had been racing by all day, but once I checked in, it seemed to come to a standstill. I’ve been on many flights in my life, and I’ve certainly been subjected to much longer layovers than the one I had today. It’s just that I was really anxious to get started on my expedition to Greenland, and so it seemed like the wait was forever. I made good use of the time however, and called some friends that I had not spoken to in a while, which helped to ease my anticipation—at least a little.

April 16, 2009 What day is it?

Finally its 12:45 AM Thursday; we are putting our carry-on items through security and will be boarding shortly. I met up with Seelye Martin from the University of Washington School of Oceanography who is Principal Investigator (PI) for OIB. I also met Rich Rogers, a pilot from Wallops, as well as Larry O’Connor and Sinead Farrel from NOAA’s Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, who are both Sea Ice Co-PIs. After introductions and short discussions we boarded the plane. I was designated one of the 30 seats aboard the Air Force’s DC-8. (NASA also has a couple of DC-8s minus the seating and instead has a science laboratory where scientists can accompany their instruments.) In preparation for takeoff the engines started, and we appeared to be on our way…or so I thought. The engine stopped and the pilot quickly informed us that one of the gyros on the DC-8 was faulty and was in need of repair. The good news was that it would only delay our departure for an hour. After another short delay, we embarked on our 6.5-hour journey to Thule Air Base. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 13

Luckily, I was able to get some sleep on the plane (I usually have a hard time sleeping on a plane; I must have been tired from all the preparation and anticipation.) I woke up about an hour before landing, ate breakfast, and then we landed, and proceeded to spend the next hour clearing orders. After we finished, I met Cate Fairchild, the P-3 aircraft Mission Director for OIB from Wallops, who gave the new arrivals a short tour of the base. Cate also introduced us to the crew that was not flying on the current day’s mission. We set up our meal cards and ate lunch at the mess hall. Then we travelled to the BX, the equivalent to an extremely small Wal-Mart that has a little bit of everything from food to clothes to flat panel TVs.

Group photo of the OIB team in front of NASA’s P-3 airborne space laboratory. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. featured articles featured

After dropping off the packages in my room, it was off to the hangar for the Opera- tion Ice Bridge group photo, and a chance to meet the remainder of the team. They gave me a warm welcome in the hangar and then we quickly went outside again. Cate asked me to take a photo of the team lined up in front of the NASA’s P-3 airborne space laboratory, so I began to set up my camera, Everyone seemed a bit anxious to get the photo done probably because it was around 0°F outside and once I realized this, I quickly finished setting up and snapped off a couple of shots to ensure that all of us didn’t freeze to death. Then it was time for dinner, followed by the OIB mission briefing given by Bill Krabill, Principal Investigator for Arctic Ice out of Wallops. Fi- nally, after a long day, it was off to bed for the early start tomorrow.

April 17, 2009 First flight

Well, I woke up this morning at 5:00 AM and figured I’d get a jumpstart on things. As I was heading down to the hall to brush my teeth, Cate greeted me and told me that they had received word that a National Science Foundation (NSF) staff member had gotten lost at the Summit camp1 during whiteout storm conditions and that the P-3 and crew would join the search and rescue effort. I quickly prepared myself, ate at the mess hall, and made my way to the P-3 hangar.

After we boarded the plane, Rich Rogers gave the new staff (Seelye, Sinead, Larry, and myself) a safety tutorial. Shortly after the briefing it was decided that there were enough planes involved in the Summit camp search, so we proceeded with our scheduled science mission.

Once we were on our way, I was completely awestruck with what I observed on my first flight. We were flying at an altitude of roughly 1500 ft over northwest Green- land’s glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice on a flight that traversed between Thule and Up- ernavik. This low vantage point allowed you to see vast features, most of which I had never seen before. It was truly amazing and words don’t really do it justice.

1 The Earth Observer recently chronicled Lora Koenig’s recent experience at Summit camp in a two-part article that ran in our March–April and May–June issues [Volume 20, Issue 2, pp. 13-17 & Issue 3, pp. 4-10.] 14 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

I was also taught a hard lesson pretty quickly on my first flight in Greenland. Though I had never suffered airsickness before in the many flights I have been on throughout my life, I had a “near miss” this time. Flying at such a low altitude produces a tremendous amount of turbulence as you fly down from the ice sheet and through the mouth of the glacier, and finally over the sea ice. Anyone who plans on shooting while in flight should heed this advice—if you are shooting through a viewfinder you should scrap the effort under heavy turbulence. You can’t control it, so don’t try. Luckily, I fought off the air sickness with a Coke though unfortunately some of my colleagues did not fare as well.

Video still from the cockpit of the P-3 flying at low altitude over a Pilot’s view of the P-3’s onboard navigation systems—which the glacier in northwest Greenland. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. pilots refer to as the “PacMan” system. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. featured articles featured One of the most interesting aspects of the equipment featured on the P-3 is the aircraft’s navigation equipment. Pilots on the plane have nicknamed it the Pac Man system. It provides the aircrew the ability to view the scheduled flight path on a liquid crystal diode (LCD) monitor located next to the flight’s primary pilot. The scheduled flight path is displayed as a series of light blue overlapping circles. On top of that set of circles is the actual progression of the aircraft displayed as another set of green overlapping circles led by an airplane shaped icon. The pilot also has the ability to zoom in or out of the flight path to view the path as closely as he likes. When the flight path is viewed close up, the pilot can make minute steering adjustments (down to 1-m-accuracy.) In a sense, it allows the pilot to adjust the current plane path to line up exactly with the planned science flight—just like how Pac Man makes turns in his maze to gobble up power pellets. This feature is extremely useful to precisely trace flight plan turns as it enables pilots and scientists to fly and accurately make measurements over the same flight path made in previous years. This translates into highly accurate and concise tracking of ice measurements over time.

April 18–19, 2009 Does the sun ever set in Greenland?

Thule Air Base shuts down normal airstrip operations for the weekend. This means that it is a necessary down day for the aircrew, and our team took advantage of the time. I got to catch up on some much needed sleep. I also had the opportunity to share a couple of meals with the crew and science team on Saturday, and meals are always a great opportunity to get to know people. They were such a great group, each with fascinating stories.

After lunch, I decided to take a stroll around the base and observed the piping system, which interestingly enough is above ground. The pipes are contained within heated tubes to ensure that the water lines do not freeze. The bases’ buildings vary in size, but are primarily made up of doublewide trailers and seem to resemble a large rec- reational vehicle (RV) park. On my tour, I made my way down toward the sea ice and got a great panoramic view Mount Dundas framed by Thule Air Base’s piping system. of Mount Dundas, which juts out into the bay. It is a Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. magnificent relic of volcanic activity and an ancient sea. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 15

Since I was a glutton for taking pictures and exposing the camera to sub-freezing temperatures for more than a few minutes, I had to constantly battle with my camera batteries. I did my best to ration the batteries for the majority of the hike and managed to get a picture of an arctic fox running between two doublewides. After dinner I enjoyed TV in the lounge, talked to my wife, and wrote some e-mails. Later that night around 11:30 PM, I noticed that the sun was just starting to set (what a weird experience!) At this time of year in the Arctic, the sun doesn’t really truly set; it goes close to the horizon and slowly begins to rise about an hour or two later. Despite how movies illustrate the problems with falling asleep under these conditions, room darkening shades and curtains do the job easily!

Sunday was very similar to Saturday with more rest and relaxation and a little exploration. I also helped out with the design of the OIB mission souvenir mug. After dinner, the whole team got together for a mission planning meeting for Monday. We decided that I should be in the cockpit of the P-3 for takeoff and landing for filming purposes. An arctic fox on Thule Air Base. I was definitely excited. Cate also shared some good news with us—the search and Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. rescue effort for the lost NSF staff member was successful. He was found shortly after his snowmobile was located and is now being sent to receive urgent medical attention in Nuuk, Greenland.

April 20, 2009 P-3 Pull back and Lasers articles featured

I got an early start today! After a quick breakfast at 6:00 AM, I hustled over to the hangar (about a quarter of a mile away from my quarters) with tripod and cameras. By 6:30 AM, I quickly set up the tripod to film the “pull back” of the NASA P-3 out of the hangar. It was a pretty photographic site observing what seemed to be a dimly lit hangar with giant doors that roll open to expose the Arctic landscape behind the runway. I thought it was cold inside the hangar but when the doors opened I realized just how drastic the temperature difference between the inside and the outside was. The change in temperature created mirage-like effects around the P-3 as it was hauled from the hangar onto the tarmac. I then boarded the plane and got setup in the cockpit for takeoff. It was a first for me, certainly an experience that I will never forget. It’s now easy to understand why pilots do what they do; what a rush of excitement!

NASA’s P-3 on the tarmac. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. Bill Krabill and flight crew in the P-3 cockpit. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos.

Today’s flight is over the northeast corner of Greenland, and included a pass down the near center of the Greenland ice sheet. During the flight, I got the opportunity to learn more about the instruments that are onboard the P-3 for this mission. Jim Yungel, Rob Russell, and Matt Linkswiler are the onboard operators for the two Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) featured on the aircraft. They explained that the ATM is a scanning lidar that observes the Earth’s topography. It also has been used since 1993 to measure the Greenland ice sheet and track the changing arctic and antarctic icecaps and glacier elevations; the ATM is also used to measure sea-ice thickness. 16 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

I can’t say it enough—everything I saw was breathtaking. Both being a passenger and shooting in the cockpit for landing was another testament to pilots’ skill set. All I have to say is that Rich Rogers’ landing was one of the smoothest that I have ever had. Over the duration of the flight, I shot so much footage that I need to do a transfer tonight to ensure that I have space to shoot more tomorrow. At the evening meeting there was a discussion about which flight would be on tomorrow’s agenda. Would it be a flight focusing on flying over sea ice in the Arctic Ocean or another glacier run? The call will depend on the weather report in the morning.

April 21, 2009 Down Day

After an early breakfast, it was a quick discussion about which flight would be optimal for the day. Based on the weather report, the proposed glacier flight would not be the best choice because of fogged out conditions that would make for a dangerous and difficult flight through the glacial mountain passes. Instead the sea ice flight would be taken. Bill suggested that it would be an ideal day for me to video the P-3’s takeoff and landing from the ground and visit Earl Frederick in the Global Positioning Sys- tem (GPS) shack.

Since the sea ice flight required a later takeoff than nor-

featured articles featured mal, it provided a little down time prior to the flight. This gave some of the crew the opportunity to look at some of the video “dailies” that I had already shot. The team seemed pleased with what I had captured, and Bill requested that I send some clips to Andrew Roberts at NASA Headquarters. Andrew is the Airborne Science Program Director, and wanted to use some of my clips in one of his upcoming presentations. Bill and Seelye helped me select some highlights and I quickly edited a The P-3 landing in Thule.Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. short sequence, and left it to render while I went to film the takeoff of the P-3. The Thule Air Base staff was kind enough to allow me to film the takeoff from the top deck of the Air Traffic Control tower (another first for me!) It provided me with a near “eagle’s eye” view of the entire runway allowing me to capture the P-3 ascending for today’s mission.

After I got back I checked my video and sent it off to Andrew. I then met up with Jeff Sigrist, who had a mandatory down day as part of the P-3 flight crew, to head down to see Earl at the GPS shack. Once at the shack (so-named because it literally is an 8’ x 8’ building full of GPS equipment) down near Thule Pier, Earl gave me a tour of the equipment. He explained that the GPS radar setup outside the shack communicates with onboard P-3 navigation equipment operated and monitored throughout the flight by John Sontag. It ensures accuracy of the flight paths as the sensors are gathering science measurements during flight. Earl’s job is to calibrate the GPS radar every- day and troubleshoot any issues on the fly in order to aid in the navigation of the P-3.

Earl Frederick calibrating the Operation Ice Bridge ground GPS Sea ice in the Thule harbour. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. antenna. Credit: Jim Yungel. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 17

This is vitally important since the data gathered will be incorporated with the GPS data to correct for the plane’s movement and orientation to ensure accurate measurements. Upon return of the daily P-3 flights, the plane will do a calibration pass over the shack and airstrip before landing on the runway as a security measure.

Outside the shack, Earl guided me through his daily routine of calibrating the antenna. Our tutorial was briefly interrupted when an Arctic hare passed by. Arctic hares are interesting animals that are quite big and have large hind legs to bound over deep snow. But back to the GPS antenna…During a lunch break, Earl escorted Jeff and me onto the nearby sea ice. It was another memorable experience. Of course most people have walked or skated on frozen ponds and lakes before, but this was actually the frozen ocean that I was walking on. I never thought I’d ever do that in my life. In the distance, I could see the nearby islands, and several icebergs still frozen in the sea ice from last year’s winter freeze. (On a side note, Earl mentioned that only a few days earlier the annual local dog race competition and the base’s “broom hockey” competi- An arctic hare. tion had taken place.) There was also some rifting ice nearby that had dragged some of Credit: Jim Yungel. the beach sand up with it which gave the mostly blue and white ice a brownish tinge. Another bonus of being on the sea ice was that it afforded another spectacular view of Mount Dundas.

Once we were back at the shack Jeff and I called for a base cab and rushed back to

the airstrip to film the P-3’s landing. Once at mission operations Mitch, the airstrip articles featured manager, personally drove me onto the airstrip (at a safe distance from the runway of course) to film the descent and arrival of the P-3; wow…that’s another first to add to the list…what a day.

April 22, 2009 PARIS and Peterman

The next day the weather had cleared and we got the “green light” to fly over what Bill feels is “some of the most spectacular scenery that you will see in your life.” After seeing it, I’d have to agree…

A glacier in northwestern Greenland can be seen far off in the distance View of the PARIS Radar screen as the P-3 makes cross-sectional in this photo. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. passes of Peterman Glacier. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos.

Today’s takeoff from the cockpit was another unforgettable visual. From the ground, the sky was completely cloud covered as Matt Elder, today’s P-3 pilot, ascended into it. In a split second, the clouds completely consumed the cockpit’s windshields, obscuring the view lasting for 4–5 seconds, then magically opening up to a pristine blue sky.

Once we made it to one of our primary locations, I completely understood exactly what Bill had mentioned and was once again awestruck by the Humboldt, Peterman, Steens- by, and Ryder glaciers and sea ice that I was witnessing in northwestern Greenland.

Back to the science…Several of today’s flight paths were various cross section passes of the Peterman glacier. The Pathfinder Advanced Radar Ice Sounder (PARIS) radar, operated by Marshall Jose, is one of the featured payloads on the P-3 for this mission. 18 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

It greatly improves the visibility of internal layering and bottom topography of conti- nental ice sheets and glaciers. PARIS’ observations give us precise measurements of the depth of the slowly moving glacier. It was quite interesting to observe the variance of the ice sheet as it was digitally drawn on Marshall’s monitor.

Directly across from Marshall sat Ben Panzer operating the University of Kansas’ snow radar, an ultra-wideband radar system capable of direct measurement of snow thickness. It also gathered good data measurements of the ice sheet and sea ice.

During the u-turns necessary to make the glacial cross-sections we had the opportunity to get a glimpse of a grounded U.S. Army Air Force B-29 airplane that was stranded and abandoned in the glacial lakebed in 1947. We enjoyed more spectacular views of the glaciers as our flight continued, and returned to Thule Air Base in time for dinner.

April 23, 2009 What to do on my last day in Thule?

I had a little bit of a debate this morning…I had the option to stay on the ground and record another set of ground-based takeoffs and landings or I could go back up for another science flight with the team. Even though I had recorded a fair amount of aerial footage, Bill easily persuaded me by informing me that we would be flying

featured articles featured over some new glaciers that the team had not measured before. (Trust me, if you were in my position you would become addicted to flying through and over glaciers and probably have made the same decision.) On the way to the Dauguard–Jensen Glacier across central Greenland, we flew over the NSF’s Greenland Ice sheet Summit camp— the same camp where the rescued NSF staff member was trying to get back to when he got caught in whiteout conditions a few days ago.

Panoramic view from P-3 cockpit. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos.

Once we were in east-central Greenland we surveyed the Dauguard–Jensen Glacier whose slowly travelling ice off the main ice sheet resembles an enormous cascading waterfall with steep increments. Despite the amount of video I took, and the sites I had already seen during my flight days, at one point I had to just stop recording. I was dumbfounded by what I was seeing. No video or pictures could do any justice to the 180° panorama that the cockpit offered another gem for my memories. As the day continued, we flew over and through the newly observed glacial canyons that Bill had mentioned. These teardrop-shaped glacier canyons were quite narrow and featured huge crevasses that seemed to loop around as we reached the end of each canyon.

The relatively quiet return flight from the east coast gave me enough time to gather more onboard operation shots and talk at length with the science team and flight crew. As we landed, it was comforting to know that a nice dinner was waiting for us. Bill McGregory of the flight crew had worked very hard on his mandatory down day to prepare a scrumptious spaghetti feast for everyone on the team. After dinner, we all took turns sharing pictures that we had taken. Within the next couple of days the The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 19

Layered clouds over Greenland’s mountains and ice sheet. Credit: Calving front of a glacier. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. Chris Chrissotimos.

team will be moving operations and be based out of Sonde, Greenland for a set of science flights observing southern Greenland. Earl was doing an excellent job of making me feel guilty for leaving tomorrow. He was trying to convince me to stay for another week. I easily would have been up for it, if I didn’t need to get the footage from this trip edited and ready for presentation at an upcoming conference only a week away. We all turned in for the night and I packed in preparation for my journey home.

April 24, 2009 Flight home articles featured

Up like clock work at 5:00 AM, I quickly got ready for my return home. I checked and then double-checked that everything was packed. I made my way over to Mis- sion Operations for check in at 5:30 AM for the weekly rotator flight back to the U.S. a few hours later. I figured that I would be one of the first there, but found out that I was at least 12th in line. Luckily enough both Bills, Rich, Larry, and Seelye where there waiting to get on the flight as well, so we had a good chat to pass the time. Once checked in we all made our way to the mess hall for our final breakfast in Thule, and said our goodbyes to the rest of the team, who will stay and finish the rest of the science missions. The homebound crew boarded the DC-8, and we were soon in the air. I sat next to Rich Rogers and, amazingly, we had six uninterrupted hours of conversation which ranged from photo techniques to old Navy and family stories. As the flight progressed the landscape beneath us gradually transformed from white ice and snow, to browns, and then to green as we made our way down the coast of North America. The colors looked so lush and saturated in comparison to the shades of blues, grays, and whites that I had experienced over the past week. I was a little sad when I realized all the scenery that I had left…but then I realized that I would spend the following week edit- ing the footage and get to relive my experiences of my magnificent trip, and Glacial crevaces with the mountain ridge and icesheet in that’s not so bad. Bill and the background. Credit: Chris Rich gave me a ride home Chrissotimos. and we discussed possibly doing this again some- time, and made plans for a visit to Wallops in the near future to keep gathering content for my DVD project. P-3 Pilot Rich Rogers, self portrait. Credit: Rich Rogers. 20 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

HITRAN: A History Nicole Miklus, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected] Laurence Rothman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, [email protected]

In the 1960s, Laurence Rothman joined the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories near Bedford, Massachusetts. The lab had a project with the goal to detect and identify jet aircraft at a distance. However, the terrestrial atmosphere posed a problem to the interpretation of the signals—the usual infrared signature of jets would be distorted by the molecular absorptions of gases throughout the atmosphere.

The concept of the project was in many ways typical of leaps in scientific progress: the confluence of several new technologies at the same time. These new technologies included the maturation of computers capable of reading databases, high-resolution In essence, this database spectroscopic techniques in the laboratory (such as Fourier transform spectrometers), new theoretical techniques for dealing with molecular absorption properties and transmission, is like a fingerprint for and new infrared detectors that could be used for acquiring target signatures. the molecular absorption in the atmosphere, At the initial stages of the development of the spectroscopic database, a group of and the archive can be experts on the principal absorbers in the terrestrial atmosphere was formed, under likened to the genome the direction of John Garing and Bob McClatchey. It was code-named GOATS, project in biology. standing for Group On Atmospheric Transmission Studies. The group recognized featured articles featured that a database of the major absorbers would provide a map of the atmosphere, and coupled with transmission calculations, would provide the location and abundance of gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. With this initiative, the HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption database, or HITRAN, was conceived. In essence, this database is like a fingerprint for the molecular absorption in the atmosphere, and the archive can be likened to the genome project in biology.

The first edition of HITRAN came out in 1973 on magnetic tape. It contained the spectral lines of seven major absorbers in the infrared—water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and oxygen. Rothman assumed direction of the project in 1975, and soon the database expanded to include more gases and spectral coverage from the microwave to visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Part of this expansion was enabled by funding from the The HITRAN Advisory Committee (including Department of Transportation (DOT), which at the time, was concerned about the NASA observers) effects of the proposed supersonic transport (SST) on the upper atmosphere. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 21

Then, in the 1980s, NASA became interested in using HITRAN in its remote sensing HITRAN has sup- studies. Thanks to NASA support, the database has been extended considerably. ported measurements The parameter set has expanded from the original four—wavenumber of transition, from Earth Observing line intensity, collision-broadened width, and lower state energy—and the accuracy of System (EOS) instru- parameters in the database has continually increased. Cross-section data are available ments like the Atmo- for numerous heavier molecules such as anthropogenic trace gases with the potential spheric Infrared Sounder for global warming and ozone depletion. High-resolution line-by-line codes and moderate spectral resolution band-model codes employ HITRAN as input in order to (AIRS), the High-Reso- perform remote-sensing calculations. They have taken advantage of the new properties lution Dynamics Limb in HITRAN to increase their effectiveness. Sounder (HIRDLS), Measurements of Pollu- HITRAN has supported measurements from Earth Observing System (EOS) tion in the Troposphere instruments like the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the High-Resolution (MOPITT), and the Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS), Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere Tropospheric Emission (MOPITT), and the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES). The database Spectrometer (TES). is important to studies investigating the abundance and distribution (geographic, altitudinal, and temporal) of man-made chemicals in the atmosphere.

Today, the 2008 version of HITRAN contains several million line transitions for 42 different molecules. There are additional molecules represented by infrared cross- sections, and similar sets of both line parameters and cross-sections in the ultraviolet

region. An analog database, called HITEMP, contains high-temperature spectroscopic articles featured absorption parameters.

Rothman directs the HITRAN and HITEMP projects from the Atomic and Molecular Physics Division at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA. However, the effort is truly international. There is an international HITRAN advisory committee composed of about 12 members who are not only the major contributors of data (both experimental and theoretical), but who also perform validation tests. These tests are most frequently applied to NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian, and Japanese satellite remote-sensing retrievals.

To obtain instructions to access the compilation, submit a Request Form at: www. cfa.harvard.edu/HITRAN. The site also includes facts and frequently asked questions about the database. The details of the current HITRAN edition can be found in the article L.S. Rothman, et al., “The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database,” Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, vol. 110, 533-572 (2009).

Note that ongoing improvements to many molecular bands are still being made. Updates, improvements, and corrections to the edition are posted in the “HITRAN UPDATES” sub-page of the HITRAN website (www.cfa.harvard.edu/HITRAN/). Please email any problems encountered, as well as successes or suggestions, to Laurence Rothman at: [email protected]. 22 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

NASA “Treks” to Iowa for Problem-Solving Competition Nicole Miklus, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected] Steve Graham, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]

Students from around the world gathered to participate in the 30th Odyssey of the Mind (OM) World Finals, a creative problem-solving competition held at Iowa State University, in Ames, IA, May 27-30. These students had advanced from competitions held earlier in the year at local, regional, state, or country levels and were in Iowa to The 2009 World Finals compete for the title of World Champion. marked the ninth year The 2009 World Finals marked the ninth year NASA’s Earth Observing System NASA’s Earth Observing Project Science Office (EOSPSO) sponsored a long-term problem. This year’s System Project Science problem, Earth Trek, focused on generating awareness of environmental changes Office (EOSPSO) and their impacts. Each team designed and built a small vehicle capable of visiting sponsored a long-term four locations. Teams determined the environments to be visited—e.g., rain forests, problem. beaches, and mountain ranges. As a vehicle left one location and traveled in a group of vehicles to another place, its appearance changed. Team performance was rated on visits to locations, environments chosen, and changes in vehicle appearance.

featured articles featured Other NASA-featured activities at World Finals included the Earth Science E-Theatre, a dynamic theater-style presentation that showcases Earth observations and visualizations in high-definition format. The E-Theatre features satellite launch animations, as well as visualizations made from NASA Earth science satellite data.

Over the past year, NASA supported OM’s preliminary competitions by posting Earth science information on a special web site hosted on NASA’s Earth Observatory— Steve Graham welcomes earthobservatory.nasa.gov. The Earth Observatory serves as a host to many teacher and the OM participants on behalf of NASA. student learning modules. Web links were provided to assist students in developing Credit: Chris Chrissotimos. solutions to problems facing Earth.

Out of the 148 teams participating in Earth Trek at World Finals, the following won top honors in their division:

Division I 1st Place: West Vincent Elementary School— Chester Springs, PA 2nd Place: Shanghai Foreign Language Primary School— Shanghai, China 3rd Place: Afton Elementary School—Morrisville, PA 4th Place: Greenlawn Elementary School—Bainbridge, NY 5th Place: Horizon Elementary School—Johnston, IA 6th Place: J.Y. Joyner Elementary School—Raleigh, NC 6th Place: Sanfordville Elementary School—Warwick, NY

Division II 1st Place: Pennridge South Middle School—Perkasie, PA 2nd Place: Magnolia Intermediate School— Grass Valley, CA 3rd Place: Corunna Middle School—Corunna, MI 4th Place: Ho Fung College—Hong Kong, Hong Kong 4th Place: Formus—Monterrey, Mexico 5th Place: Abington Heights Middle School— Clarks Summit, PA 6th Place: Georgia Military College Prep School— Milledgeville, GA The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 23

Opening Ceremonies of the 2009 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, held at the Hilton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University. Credit: Chris Chrissotimos.

6th Place: Halstead Middle School—Halstead, KS

6th Place: Northern Lakes Community Church—Traverse City, MI articles featured

Division III 1st Place: Hayes Foundation—Castleton, VT 2nd Place: St. John Neumann High School—Williamsport, PA 3rd Place: Corunna High School—Corunna, MI 4th Place: Abington Heights High School—Clarks Summit, PA 5th Place: Tempe Preparatory Academy—Tempe, AZ 5th Place: Irondequoit High School—Rochester, NY 6th Place: Bear River High School—Grass Valley, CA NASA reaches over Division IV two million students, 1st Place: Davenport University-Lettinga—Grand Rapids, MI teachers, parents, 2nd Place: University of Georgia—Athens, GA and coaches around rd 3 Place: Penn State University—State College, PA the world through its sponsorship of an OM The Corunna Middle School (Corunna, MI) and Formus (Monterrey, Mexico) teams problem, stimulating also received the prestigious Ranatra Fusca Award—an award given to OM teams who exhibit exceptional creativity, risk-taking, and out-of-the box thinking. interest in learning about Earth system NASA reaches over two million students, teachers, parents, and coaches around the science among all ages. world through its sponsorship of an OM problem, stimulating interest in learning about Earth system science among all ages. The OM program, founded in 1978, is an international educational program promoting team effort and creative problem solving for students from kindergarten through college. Over 850 teams from the U.S. and other countries, including China, Poland, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, and Germany, participated in World Finals this year.

NASA’s Earth Science Division conducts and sponsors research, collects new observations from space, develops technologies, and extends science and technology education to learners of all ages. Through a better understanding of our home planet, NASA hopes to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards using the unique vantage point of space.

For the 2010 OM Competition, NASA’s EOSPSO will sponsor Problem 1: Nature Trail’R. To access the OM official web site, visit:www.odysseyofthemind.com.

24 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

NASA’s contribution to the Group on Earth Obser- vations (GEO) Global Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems Inbal Becker-Reshef, University of Maryland, College Park, [email protected] Chris Justice, University of Maryland, College Park, [email protected] Brad Doorn, U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, [email protected] Curt Reynolds, U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, [email protected] Assaf Anyamba, NASA GSFC/University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, [email protected] Compton James Tucker, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected] Stefania Korontzi, University of Maryland College Park, [email protected]

NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (IRSA) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The have a long history of working together to monitor global meeting was attended by close to 100 participants repre- agriculture from space that dates back to the 1970s. senting 51 national and international agencies and orga- One of the most recent initiatives the two agencies have nizations concerned with agricultural monitoring. participated in is the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GLAM) Project. GLAM is a joint research initiative be- Introduction tween USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the University Global agricultural production faces increasing pressure of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and South Dakota from more frequent and extreme weather events such State University. Chris Justice [UMCP] and Jim Tucker as floods and droughts, increasing economic pressures, [GSFC] serve as Co-PIs of the GLAM Project. As part of rising energy costs, civil conflicts, rapid population the GLAM project Justice receives support from NASA to growth, changing diets, and land degradation. All these lead the Agricultural Monitoring Task of the Group on pressures combine to place increasing strain on society’s Earth Observations (GEO) [Task Ag-07-03]. The aim of ability to provide an adequate and safe supply of food this task is to bring together the international agricultural for an ever-increasing global population. Simply put, monitoring community to form a Community of Practice there is a limit on the planet’s capacity that we may be (CoP) that will develop and implement an integrated glob- rapidly approaching, and we must find ways to increase al agricultural monitoring system of systems building on our world’s agricultural productivity to meet the grow- existing systems and international Earth Observing assets. ing demands of society. The GEO Agricultural Monitoring CoP has convened a series of workshops to bring together the agricultural moni- In response to the growing stress on our world’s food toring community to develop an implementation plan for supply, the past few years have seen a dramatic increase this task. The most recent workshop on building a Global in the demand for timely, comprehensive global agri- Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems (GLAMSS) cultural “intelligence.” Global agriculture monitoring was convened February 11-13, 2009 in Beijing, China, systems are critical to providing this kind of “intel- and hosted by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications ligence.” Being able to see the “big picture” can lead meeting/workshop summaries

Attendees at the GEO Agricultural Monitoring Workshop Beijing, February 2009. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 25

to the development of fair and efficient global market The GLAM Project trading (e.g., carbon and agriculture commodities), as well as effective policies on critical issues of today—e.g., The GLAM Project is building a new near-real time global climate change, biofuels, and economic growth. Effec- agricultural monitoring system based on NASA science tive global agriculture monitoring can provide essential data. The system will be a comprehensive data manage- economic and environmental indicators through timely, ment system for remote-sensing based global agriculture comprehensive, reliable, and objective information on monitoring; located at GSFC, the system will be owned global croplands distribution and on crop development and operated by the FAS. The system currently includes and condition as the growing season progresses. a customized web-based information-analysis and data- delivery system developed combining the capabilities of For this reason, the GEO has targeted Agriculture as the Global Inventory Mapping and Monitoring System one of the applications where enhanced international (GIMMS) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer cooperation has the potential to provide a major benefit (AVHRR) system, the Moderate Resolution Imaging to society (www.earthobservations.org/) and NASA has Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Advanced Processing System chosen Agriculture as one of its seven Applied Science [MODAPS], and the MODIS Rapid Response System. Program themes. The system enables the FAS analysts to monitor crop growing conditions and to locate and track the factors impair- There are already a number of established national and ing agricultural productivity. This system currently pro- international agricultural monitoring systems, that play vides FAS crop analysts with time series AVHRR Global a fundamental role in the decision-making processes Area Coverage (GAC) data (1981–present) and MODIS that govern food aid and agricultural products in the vegetation indices (2000–present) and MODIS Rapid global market. Some of these systems use a combina- Response (250-m imagery within 2–4 hours of overpass). tion of ground-based and satellite-derived observations. But up until now, there has been little communication GLAM is also working on new products custom de- between these systems and GEO (and NASA) hope that signed to meet FAS needs, including a dynamic, interac- enhanced observations and better coordination will help tive global croplands likelihood map at 250-m resolution. meet the increasing demand for reliable information. The GLAM system, through its web-based technology, analysis tools, and NASA datasets, has improved the The goal of the GEO, as an intergovernmental frame- USDA’s FAS operational capabilities to monitor global work, is to enhance the availability and use of Earth crop production and has become the primary tool that observations through international coordination, FAS analysts turn to for monitoring crops and for fore- exploiting the growing potential of Earth observa- casting yield and production of the major crops grown tions to support decision making in an increasingly worldwide. The extensive web-accessible Database Man- complex and environmentally stressed world. As agement System (DBMS) provides a substantial opportu- of March 2009, GEO’s members included 77 govern- nity for a range of applications requiring frequent, timely, ments, the European Commission, and 56 intergovern- global moderate resolution data. Future plans include mental, international, and regional organizations. expanding the capability to fuse coarse and moderate resolution satellite data and preparing the system for data NASA’s Involvement in Agriculture Monitoring from instruments planned for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPO- meeting/workshop summaries NASA has a long history of directly supporting agricul- ESS) Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) ture monitoring. NASA and USDA worked together to and the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). develop the first large-scale effort to monitor agriculture NASA and USDA are making contributions from the from space in the 1970s—the Large Area Crop Inven- GLAM Project to the larger GEO GLAMSS effort. tory Experiment (LACIE) Program. They followed up this effort with the Agriculture and Resources Inventory GEO Agriculture Monitoring Workshops Surveys Through Aerospace (AgRISTARS) program initiated in 1980. Building on this experience NASA is Current agricultural monitoring systems operate at a enhancing the agricultural monitoring and the crop- variety of scales with two primary foci: (1) food security production estimation capabilities of the USDA For- and famine early warning; and (2) production monitor- eign Agricultural Service (FAS) using the new genera- ing for ensuring stable global and national markets of tion of NASA satellite observations. The GLAM project agricultural crops. is building one of the leading, most comprehensive global agriculture monitoring systems that serves as an While some of these systems are quite effective, there integral component to the USDA’s FAS Decision Sup- are large disparities in the monitoring capabilities of port System (DSS) for agriculture. Presently, the FAS is developed and developing nations. The agricultural sta- the only operational provider of timely, regular, global tistics generated by the various systems vary in terms of crop production estimates. levels of accuracy, availability, transparency, and timeli- 26 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

ness. There is currently little coordination between Workshop Summary these systems, despite the fact that they share common data needs and provide similar agricultural information The workshop opened with an introductory session that to decision makers. In addition to these systems that included talks by the Deputy Director of the Bureau of identify anomalies and estimate agricultural production, International Cooperation of CAS and by the Deputy there is a growing interest in establishing new systems Administrator of USDA/FAS on projections and eco- to monitor changes in agricultural land use. nomics of global food supply and demands.

Recognizing the importance of improving the ability Chris Justice from the GLAM team and lead of the to monitor agricultural systems and the limited extent GEO AG-0703 task provided a vision for the GEO of international cooperation, members of the GLAM GLAMSS. A series of overview presentations fol- team, with NASA support, helped to organize a set of lowed that reviewed the state of the science, and each well-attended, international GEO agriculture monitor- focused on one of the four main functions of an agri- ing workshops. The first two workshops were joint In- cultural monitoring system which include: (1) agricul- tegrated Global Observations for Land (IGOL) – GEO tural production monitoring; (2) famine early warn- workshops that the Food and Agriculture Organization ing; (3) monitoring of agricultural land-cover change; (FAO) hosted in Rome, Italy in 2006 and 2007. Rep- and (4) seasonal to annual agricultural forecasting and resentatives of major agricultural monitoring groups risk reduction. from around the world, the agriculture research community, and the major space agencies attended these John Townshend [UMCP—Integrated Global Obser- first two meetings. At these workshops an initial strat- vations of the Land (IGOL)] presented a strong case egy for the GEO AG-07-03 task was outlined and the for establishing a free and open data policy in order GEO Agricultural Monitoring Community of Practice to allow for effective implementation of a monitoring (CoP) was formed in order to design and implement system of systems. Representatives from the Committee a Global Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), IRSA and the (GAMSS). At the workshop, the participants agreed World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also gave that three types of agricultural monitoring activities overview presentations on current and future systems should be the primary focus for the task: (1) moni- and data initiatives for agricultural monitoring. A ses- toring of agricultural production; (2) monitoring for sion on the vision and goals for a GLAMSS focused on famine early warning; and (3) monitoring of agricul- the near-term priorities, challenges, opportunities, and tural land use change. The participants also developed future directions for agricultural monitoring. an implementation plan and a set of requirements for Earth observation for agriculture. A special session highlighted Chinese efforts in agricultural monitoring and included presentations on The 2009 GEO Beijing Workshop on Developing an the three operational Chinese agricultural monitoring Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems systems operated by CAS: CropWatch, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, and the China Meteorological In February 2009, another major planning workshop Administration. The last day of the workshop included took place that focused on developing an agricultural a special summary session for Chinese policy makers monitoring system of systems. This event was held and included presentations from the former Minister meeting/workshop summaries jointly with the partner GEO Tasks on Agricultural of the Environment, the Vice-President of CAS, a Chi- Risk Management (AG 07-03b) and Agricultural nese Meteorological Administration administrator, a Capacity Building (AG-07-03c). Over 100 attendees member of the Congress of the Ministry of Agriculture, representing more than 50 national and international and a deputy director from the National Bureau of Sta- organizations concerned with agricultural monitoring tistics. The participants of this session were enthusiastic and global food security participated in the workshop. about the progress of GEO agricultural monitoring, The goals of the workshop were to: promised strong Chinese support and cooperation, and proposed hosting a dedicated GEO Agricultural Moni- • refine the requirements, the system components, toring Center. and the data policies and practices needed for an effective agricultural monitoring system; Through a series of breakout sessions and discussions • outline a best practices document on agricultural the workshop participants: monitoring and risk management; • update and refine the agriculture monitoring task • discussed the adequacy of the current observation work plan and the 2015 task targets; and systems for agricultural monitoring; • increase the visibility and participation of Chinese • developed an outline for a best practices report for agricultural monitoring efforts. agricultural monitoring; The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 27

• identified the priority observation enhancements The objectives of JECAM are to compare data from for in-situ and satellite components of the moni- disparate sources, methods, and results over a variety toring system; and of cropping systems; to reach a convergence of the ap- • developed a near-term implementation plan for proaches; and to develop monitoring and reporting the GEO agricultural monitoring task and the protocols and best practices for different agricultural 2015 task targets. systems. It is hoped that these comparative experiments will enable international standards to be developed for GEO Task 0703 Near-Term Implementation Plan data products and reporting. JECAM–China was proposed at the workshop and datasets for this site are cur- Through the discussions and breakout sessions the CoP rently being assembled and will be openly distributed proposed a series of activities that were grouped into to the CoP. Several other regional experiments have four near-term initiatives: been proposed and are currently in the design phase. These include JECAM–Canada, JECAM–Argentina, A Production, Acreage, Yield (PAY) multi-source online JECAM–Brazil, and JECAM–Ethiopia. database initiative The minimum requirements for JECAM participation At present four different groups generate agricultural include: statistics on a regular basis for multiple countries: the USDA’s FAS, Joint Research Center (JRC), the Italian • leadership by a Space Agency and a half-time scien- Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambi- tist for the overall experiment coordination; entale (ISPRA) Joint Research Center’s (JRC) Moni- • a pilot site manager for each site; toring Agricultural ResourceS (MARS) Unit, the Chi- • a full-time data analyst to help with data inter- nese Institute of Remote Sensing Applications’ (IRSA) comparisons; CropWatch, and the United Nations Food and Agri- • five JECAM workshops to be held over the next cultural Organization (FAO) Global Information and three years; and Early Warning System (GIEWS). The crop statistics • a commitment from data providers to supply satel- from these programs are a critical factor in determin- lite data for the test sites. ing global commodity prices and identifying countries in need of food aid. To allow for comparisons between It was recommended that the following categories of crop statistics generated by these agencies, the partici- Earth observing datasets be provided by the GEO- pants decided to develop a common centralized online partner space agencies: database of Production, Area, and Yield (PAY). This PAY database will enable identification of agreements • Very high resolution imagery for area estimate pro- and disagreements in national level crop statistics, production and crop mapping validation. It is desir- viding a convergence of evidence for similar statistics able to have three acquisitions over samples dis- and helping identify areas that should be looked at tributed in the site [e.g., from the Advanced Land more carefully where statistics differ significantly. Ini- Observation Satellite (ALOS) 2.5-m sensor and tially the database will be populated with national level Resourcesat Very High Resolution (VHR) sensor.] estimates from the four programs identified above and • Wide swath instrument for crop mapping and crop will later be expanded to include statistics from indi- monitoring: all possible acquisition [e.g., from the meeting/workshop summaries vidual countries. Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWifs) and HuanJin-1.] • Coarse resolution data for crop condition moni- The Joint Experiments on Crop Assessment and Monitoring toring on a daily basis [e.g., from MODIS and Initiative (JECAM) Envisat Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Instrument (MERIS). The goal of the JECAM experiments is to facilitate the • S data for crop area indication in cloudy regions: intercomparison of monitoring and modeling methods, all possible acquisitions [e.g., from Envisat Ad- product accuracy assessments, data fusion, and product vanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) and integration for agricultural monitoring. The plan to ALOS Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aper- accomplish this is to set up a number of regional experi- ture Radar (PALSAR). ments in cropland pilot sites around the world that are representative of a range of agricultural systems. The idea The Coordinated Data Initiatives for Global Agricultural is to collect time-series datasets from a variety of Earth Monitoring (CDIGAM) Initiative observing satellites and in-situ data sources at each site. To this end the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites A priority for building a global monitoring system is (CEOS,) which is the space arm of GEO, and other data accessibility to timely and frequent satellite data dur- providers are supporting this activity with the acquisition ing the growing season, and ensuring the continuity of and timely provision of data for the experiments. these observing systems. To that end, several data initia- 28 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

tives have been identified under CDIGAM. At present, year. Canada is hosting a thematic workshop on the use NASA’s MODIS data are one of the primary data of synthetic aperture radar/optical agricultural moni- sources that the main agricultural monitoring systems toring, to be held in Banff, Canada, in October 2009 rely on, and thus both the timely delivery of these data (www.cgeo.gc.ca/announce/sar-ros-eng.pdf). India is host- and the continuity of this data class are fundamental for ing a joint workshop of the ISPRS WGVIII/6 and the the success of a global agricultural monitoring sytsem. A GEO Task Ag 0703 on climate change and agriculture partnership with the GEO Task DA 0903, led by Tom to be held at the ISRO Satellite Applications Center Loveland [USGS] and Jeff Masek [NASA], has been (SAC) in Ahmedabad, in December 2009 fostered to develop a global moderate resolution, ortho- (www.commission8.isprs.org/wg6). rectified dataset (60–30 m) from multiple international data sources for 2010. This will build on the previous Selected Workshop Recommendations NASA/USGS Global Land Surveys for 1990, 2000, and 2005, and will provide data needed for monitoring ag- The workshop recommendations fall into three primary ricultural land-use change. Under CDIGAM the FAO categories: (1) recommendations to the GEO Secre- GIEWS program is leading an effort to compile the best tariat and working groups; (2) recommendations to the available information on global agricultural areas, crop GEO partners including CEOS as the satellite arm of calendars, and cropping systems. The USAID Famine GEO and WMO as the primary international in-situ Early Warning System (FEWS) and the World Meteo- observation coordination body; and (3) recommenda- rological Organization (WMO) are leading an effort to tions to the GEO agriculture monitoring CoP. The pri- identify critical gaps in the current in-situ meteorologi- mary recommendations are specified below: cal observations for Africa and to explore the means that can be used to fill these gaps. Other data initiatives • The GEO Secretariat should establish a GEO Data that have been proposed include the development of a Policy that allows for free, open, and timely access global field-size database using multi-resolution data to satellite data and products for global agriculture and the formulation of a coordinated global satellite monitoring in order to enable the implementation data acquisition strategy for agricultural areas. of the GEO Ag 0703 task. • CEOS should help to ensure the continuity of A free and open data policy remains a high priority for Earth observations which are a requirement for the Global Agricultural Monitoring community and operational agricultural monitoring. will to a large degree determine the success of the Task • Operational agricultural monitoring necessitates and ultimately GEOSS as a whole. The GLAMSS CoP the timely availability and access to satellite data is committed to promoting an equitable data policy, al- that depends on using multiple sources of satellite lowing sharing of data amongst the community. Recent data with different temporal and spatial resolutions, developments such as the free and open access to Land- so CEOS and WMO should work to improve data sat data and the entire Landsat archive by the USGS, accessibility and interoperability. the continued free and open availability of MODIS • To achieve the desired enhancements to global ag- data by NASA, and recent data commitments by China ricultural monitoring the Agricultural Monitoring and Brazil provide some positive steps by data providers Community of Practice should: in the right direction. - Develop standards to be used for agriculture monitoring including a set of stan- meeting/workshop summaries The Global Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems dards for both in-situ and Earth observing (GLAMSS) Thematic Workshop Series [GTWS] Initiative satellite (EO) data products, collection pro- cedures, metadata, and product accuracy. Additional community workshops are needed to dis- - Assist the integration of satellite data into cuss a number of thematic and methodological top- operational monitoring systems in develop- ics to improve communication amongst the CoP, to ing countries. develop best practices and standards, and to encourage - Enhance integration of EO derived bio- cooperation and coordination. A number of thematic physical and physical measures into crop workshops have already been held by the CoP. NASA, yield models. through the GLAM project, has been instrumental in - Enhance timeliness of EO and in-situ organizing and supporting these workshops. In 2008 data delivery. the ISPRA Joint Research Centre (JRC) hosted a work- - Compile a best practices sourcebook for shop on crop area estimation. A best practices document agricultural monitoring to address issues developed at this workshop can be found at: mars.jrc. of crop production estimation, agricultural ec.europa.eu/mars/Bulletins-Publications/Best-practices-for- land-cover change, famine early warning, crop-area-estimation-with-Remote-Sensing. The JRC also and seasonal to annual forecasting and hosted a workshop on satellite rainfall estimation in risk reduction. 2008 and a follow-up workshop will be held later this The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 29

- Increase multi-agency national crop assess- • Establish a global coordinated early warning sys- ment missions. tem of systems to anticipate shortfalls or anomalies in agricultural production to facilitate timely • To achieve sustainable capacity building in support intervention and the provision of advice on ap- of global agricultural monitoring, the Agricultural propriate actions. Monitoring Community of Practice should focus on the following general areas: Conclusion - Developing and supporting data sharing (exchange) protocols in countries with less The workshop was successful and constructive and developed information systems; concluded that through commitment from the - Ensuring optimal utilization of available space agencies, the international community, and observations (in-situ and satellite data) in national governments, the realization of an effective support of agricultural monitoring through Global Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems pragmatic training programs based on is attainable in the near future. The essential compo- “best-practice” by CoP; and nents for such a monitoring system have been largely - Focusing on sustainable capacity building demonstrated, whether it be in the research domain, in strategies that leverage existing resources operational prototypes, or in operational systems. What with the support of satellite operators. is needed now is support from the international GEO partners in terms of providing open data policies and 2015 Task Target timely data delivery, ensuring continuity of Earth observing missions, enhancing in-situ networks, making As part of the GEO Secretariat coordination, a set of a commitment to capacity building, and to the active 2015 Targets have been developed for each GEO Task. participation of the community of practice in carrying During the workshop the targets for the GLAMSS were out the specified task. Achieving this kind of support updated as follows: will lead directly to significant societal benefits including increased global food security and improved agricultural • Develop a coordinated global agricultural moni- management. Given NASA’s open data policy, its long- toring system of systems, combining information term partnership with the USDA to improve agricultur- from multiple observing and reporting systems, al monitoring from space and enhance our national agri- providing timely, objective, reliable, and transpar- cultural monitoring capability, and its current leadership ent information to support global food security. role in GEO, it is in a strong position to contribute to • Enhance monitoring and modeling systems to uti- the emerging Global Agricultural Monitoring System of lize Earth observing capabilities to provide timely, Systems and the associated societal benefits. objective, reliable, and transparent agricultural statistics and information at the national level.

EOS Science Outreach Team Wins NASA Honor Award meeting/workshop summaries Our EOS Project Science Office (EOSPSO) education and outreach group (Winnie Humber- son, Task Lead) received the 2009 NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award. This team award is given to a group of non-government personnel for outstanding accomplishments while participating in a significant program or project that has contributed substantially to the NASA mission. Robert Strain, Goddard’s Center Direc- tor, presented the award to Humberson (who received on behalf of the entire team) at the 2009 Honor Awards Ceremony held on June 3. The Science Mission Directorate (SMD)/EOS team was cited for its “outstanding contributions to outreach, promoting NASA’s science and technical accomplishments, and its positive impact on society.” kudos 30 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

NASA LCLUC Spring Science Team Meeting Summary Chris Justice, University of Maryland College Park, [email protected] Garik Gutman, NASA Headquarters, [email protected] Stefania Korontzi, University of Maryland College Park, [email protected]

Land-cover/land-use change (LCLUC) remains the most or demonstrated and its implications. The recent visible manifestation of global change around the world. LCLUC brochure (lcluc.umd.edu/Program_Information/ It is the subject of an integrated research program using brochure.asp) is a step in this direction. NASA’s assets to address the intersection between the physical and human dimensions of global change. The LCLUC Science Presentations Spring Science Team Meeting was held at the Bethesda, MD Marriott from March 31-April 2, 2009, with 89 The science presentations at the meeting took the form participants, 27 presentations, and 27 posters. The purpose of a review, each with contributions from several pro- of this meeting gram PIs, in was to hear the context of results from the broader funded research research sub- projects on the discipline various impacts in question. of land-use These review change and presentations to update the can be down- community on loaded from: related program ftp://ftp.iluci. developments. org/LCLUC_ In addition, a APR2009/. A special session sample of the was held to reviews is pro- discuss the fu- vided below. ture directions LCLUC Spring Science Team Meeting Participants for the human In a review dimension of the program. A full day session was given for of LCLUC impacts on regional hydrology in Central presentations and discussion of observations and data for Asia, Geoff Henebry [South Dakota State University LCLUC research. (SDSU)] pointed to three significant aspects of land change within this region, namely the continued land Opening Session and water degradation resulting from irrigated culti- vation in the Aral Sea Basin, the deintensification of The opening session included a program update from agriculture in the semi-arid zone of northern Kazakh- meeting/workshop summaries Garik Gutman [NASA Headquarters (HQ)—LCLUC stan, and the collapse of livestock production within Program Manager] who described recent proposal selec- the region. These land-use changes have been driven by tions and a new Principal Investigator (PI) database to policies and institutions. Agricultural land-use practices help with program reporting. This was followed by a have had a big impact on regional hydrology during presentation from Mike Freilich [NASA HQ—Earth the past two decades, modulating the magnitude, tim- Science Division Director] on how land-cover/land-use ing, and location of fluxes and stocks. He noted that change science plays in to NASA’s Earth Science Pro- regional climate models are being used effectively to gram. Freilich mentioned the FY09 budget and the study LCLUC impacts but that the in-situ hydrological stimulus augmentation; the need to complete the five monitoring networks needed to parameterize and vali- Earth science missions now under development, includ- date the models have deteriorated since the 1990s. Re- ing NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) and Landsat cent research shows that observed trends in streamflow Data Continuity mission (LDCM); and the sequence of in the region appear to represent a climate signal and the Decadal Survey Missions. The take-home message that precipitation trends may be a result of land-use and from the latter presentation focused on outreach, climate change. namely that the science community needs to communicate what we are doing and why it’s important, Lahouari Bounoua [NASA Goddard Space Flight achieve technical and substantive success in our Center (GSFC)] presented a review of research on the activities, and articulate what we have discovered biophysics, hydrology, and large scale urbanization in The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 31

semi-arid regions. Bounoua showed that urbanization Pg C +/- 20%). The Amazon has experienced extensive is increasing in semi-arid regions often at the expense land-use change over the last few decades. The rate of of fertile agricultural land and that the resulting sur- deforestation, the interannual variability, and the fate of face energy budgets are modulated mainly by albedo deforested land have been successfully quantified using and transpiration. The urban heat island effect is not Landsat data. From 2001–2004, 20% of the deforesta- as marked as in temperate climates and the hydrologi- tion was due to direct conversion to cropland. The Bra- cal cycle is characterized by increased runoff during zilian Space Agency estimated 12,000 km2 of deforesta- precipitation events. An inverse modeling technique tion and 15,000 km2 of forest degradation had occurred was presented for assessing the minimum water require- in 2007. During the 1998 El Niño event, the area ments for irrigation systems in semi-arid environments. burned was thirteen times more than the area burned in Water requirements for drip irrigation were shown to be a normal year and was twice the area of deforestation. In about 43% of that needed for spray irrigation. the Araguaia Basin, river discharge has increased by 25% since the 1970s with two-thirds of that increase attrib- Chris Small [Columbia University] presented a review uted to land-cover change. addressing the hydrological impacts of LCLUC on urban environments. Small reported on a number of Bob Walker [Michigan State University] summarized modeling studies within the program, showing that al- seven land-use modeling studies including simulation, though urban areas cover a small percentage (~3%) of econometric, agent-based, and behavior models. Mod- land area globally, they have a disproportionate impact els of deforestation have been generated at multiple on the environment. Unprecedented urban growth has scales with process-based projection capability, either characterized the last decades of the twentieth century projecting deforestation patterns associated with a given particularly in the developing world. Population den- road network or generating road networks and provid- sity is a primary driver for nitrogen, phosphorus, and ing scenarios of deforestation and forest fragmenta- total suspended solid fluxes into our estuaries. Regional tion. Walker discussed a number of challenges to the scale studies are showing the impact of urbanization on modeling community including the goodness of fit, the climatology and freshwater species richness. Modeling treatment of model uncertainty, and capturing forest the impacts of future projections of urban land-use dynamics with different transitions. change reveals significant impacts on reduced base flow, and increased runoff and convective precipitation. Billie Lee Turner II [Arizona State University] gave a presentation on strengthening the human dimension Volker Radeloff [University of Wisconsin] gave a re- of LCLUC. Areas for continued or future emphasis view of LCLUC in Eastern Europe, which provides a within the program include inferring and scaling hu- “natural experiment” to address how broad-scale drivers man behavior; examining the tradeoff between land and disturbance influence land use and study the im- systems; inclusion of dynamic land-use change in pacts of diverged nations, socioeconomic upheaval, and integrated models as well as topical research areas of land abandonment. Studies have quantified post-Soviet land-use and climate change, urbanization, the role of land abandonment, forest loss, and illegal logging. For institutions in land-use decisions and the impacts of the example, using satellite data to locate and quantify changing global economy (macro structure); and role afforestation and deforestation, carbon stocks are be- of international conventions on land-use change. There ing tracked, showing that Georgia and Romania will was considerable discussion following the presentation remain carbon sinks for the foreseeable future. Satellite on the possible reasons for a recent decline in the social meeting/workshop summaries data are also being used to study the rewilding of lands. science component of the program and ways in which Radeloff showed some examples of the resulting nega- this component could be reinvigorated, including sug- tive and positive impacts on saiga and bear populations, gestions concerning future calls for proposals and the respectively. Different policies provide stark differences peer review process. in land use and land cover and resulting environmental and social issues for the nations of Eastern Europe. Observations and Data Session

The LCLUC program has supported a number of studies The LCLUC observations and data session started with in the Amazon Basin, as part of the NASA Large-scale a sequence of presentations on the international ob- Biosphere Atmosphere (LBA) Experiment. Eric David- servation programs in which the program is an active son [Woods Hole Research Center—LBA-ECO Project player. John Townshend [University of Maryland— Scientist] gave an overview of the LCLUC research in Chairman of the Integrated Global Observations of Land the LBA. Results using microwave data to map wet- (IGOL) Theme] presented an overview of the land lands provided input for a basin-wide (i.e., below 500 Essential Climate Variables (ECVs.) The ECVs were m) estimate of methane emissions of 22 Tg C/yr. A developed by the Global Climate Observing System combination of ground plots and microwave data were (GCOS) to meet the needs of the Framework Conven- used to estimate total forest biomass for the basin (86 tion on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and include Land 32 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

Cover, Albedo, Fire Disturbance, Biomass, and Leaf- GLS 2005 is now complete and letters have been sent Area Index. Townshend summarized the ECV standards to solicit international participation in GLS 2010. status document, presented to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) in 2007 and Jim Irons [GSFC] presented the status of LDCM. This the Guidelines for Satellite Datasets and Products docu- mission has been nine years in formulation. The Critical ment developed by GCOS in 2009. He recommended Design Review for the Operational Land Imager (OLI, the setting up of an interagency mechanism(s) to ensure a.k.a., Landsat 8) was completed in October 2008. The that high quality ECVs are generated and that agency retargeted launch date is December 2012. USGS will roles and responsibilities are clearly identified. be responsible for the mission ground system, com- prised of flight operations, data processing, and archive. Jim Tucker [GSFC—Co-chair U.S. Global Change A Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) with two bands with Research Program (GCRP)/Climate Change Science Pro- 120-m spatial resolution is being considered for launch gram (CCSP) Observations Working Group] gave the U.S. on the same platform. GCRP/CCSP perspective on land observations, emphasizing the need for the continued combination of Mod- Curtis Woodcock [Boston University—Landsat Science erate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Team Co-Chair] presented the priorities for the Landsat and Landsat sensors for the study of climate change and Science Team. He noted that since the Landsat archive the carbon cycle. New capabilities of these sensors are was opened for free download that the number of scenes needed for the study of vegetation height/structure and delivered by the USGS has increased fifty-fold. The atmospheric carbon dioxide. team has organized around a number of priority issues, including the impending data gap prior to the launch Tony Janetos [Pacific Northwest National Laborato- of OLI, future Landsat class missions beyond LDCM, ry—Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dy- and the Global Consolidated Landsat Archive. Technical namics (GOFC-GOLD) Chairman] gave an overview of working groups have formed to address cloud masking, the activities of the GOFC-GOLD Program, which is a surface reflectance, and temperature as standard OLI major international program on land satellite observa- products and carbon mapping and monitoring. Future tions. He emphasized the on-going Reducing Emissions issues include operational land-cover change monitoring, from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) Sour- cloud screening of the Landsat archive data, and defini- cebook initiative, a new implementation team being tion of long-term sensing scenarios beyond “Landsat 9.” formed on biomass monitoring and change, and a new initiative on land use being undertaken jointly with The session ended with Bryant Cramer [USGS] who the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) focusing on presented different aspects of USGS involvement with global agricultural monitoring. Landsat. Current efforts include developing a multi- source data acquisition plan to mitigate a potential Joanne Nightingale [GSFC] presented on recent de- Landsat data gap and augmenting the single data stream velopments of the Committee on Earth Observation from Landsat 8. In the latter context, USGS is work- Satellites (CEOS) Land Product Validation (LPV) ing with the European Space Agency (ESA) on possible Working Group and the teams and validation protocols joint operations of Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2. He noted and reporting standards being developed for land-cover that additional funding is needed for USGS LDCM change, fire, biophysical characteristics, surface energy, operations and any data buys associated with filling the meeting/workshop summaries land-surface temperature and soil moisture. potential Landsat data gap; he also stated that the funding pathway for an operational Landsat program is not Martha Maiden [NASA HQ—Chair CEOS Working evident. Following his talk, there was an animated dis- Group on Information Systems and Service (WGISS)] cussion from the community on the need to build two gave an overview of WGISS activities and their relation- OLI instruments, while a plan for the future of U.S. ship to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), with land imaging is being formulated; the need for NASA emphasis on the Land Surface Imaging Constellation, to stay actively engaged in the future of the Landsat the Data Democracy initiative, and the Disaster Soci- program; the requirement for higher temporal fre- etal Benefit Area (SBA). She also discussed cooperation quency from Landsat class observations; and the com- with the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and paratively rapid deployment of Landsat class systems by Validation (WGCV) on global datasets and quality. other nations.

The second session on observations focused on Landsat. The afternoon session included a summary of LCLUC- Jeff Masek [GSFC] presented the status of the Global related research findings from the Earth Observing-1 Land Survey (GLS)—a joint NASA/U.S. Geological (EO-1) system. Betsy Middleton [GSFC—EO-1 Project Survey (USGS) project—to provide global ortho-rec- Scientist], and Robert Wolfe [GSFC—Terra Deputy Proj- tified datasets for 2005 and 2010. The sets contribute ect Scientist for Data] presented on the state of MODIS to the GEO Task on Global Land Cover (DA 0903a). instruments and land products. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 33

Diane Wickland [NASA HQ] presented on the Dec- Climate change with an emphasis on mitigation adal Survey land science rationale, plans, and mission through land-use practices and land-use adaptation is phasing. Of particular note for the LCLUC community becoming a major program focus. Program manage- are the near-term Tier 1 missions—Soil Moisture Ac- ment recognizes the need for the human dimensions tive and Passive (SMAP) and Deformation, Ecosystem aspect of proposed LCLUC research to be integral and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI)—and their respective to the research question, rather than an appendage. capabilities for soil moisture and vegetation structure There is a growing body of research within the pro- mapping. In the mid-term, the Tier 2 Hyperspectral gram on the role of institutions and policy impacts Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission will have capabilities on LCLUC, which warrants synthesis. As a result for moderate resolution (60 m) thermal and hyperspec- of recent selections, urban growth is receiving more tral remote sensing. The community was encouraged to attention from the program. Regional focus for the participate in science definition and development of re- program is currently on South Asia but is turning to quirements through workshops planned over the next 18 South America, beyond the Amazon. months. Concerns from the community about the need for balance between these new experimental missions and With respect to observations, the community is encour- systematic observations were noted. aged to take advantage of the newly opened Landsat archive and the 2005 GLS datasets. Increased interna- Future Directions Session tional cooperation on Landsat class data exchange needs to be developed prior to the launch of the LDCM, and Chris Justice [University of Maryland College Park— the continuation of the Landsat program will be criti- LCLUC Project Scientist] and Garik Gutman led the cal to the LCLUC research program. The program also final session of the workshop, which focused on future will need to consider a future fine-resolution data buy in directions for LCLUC. The program has demon- support of LCLUC process studies. strated, through the use of NASA satellite data, that over the past few decades rapid changes in land use The next LCLUC Team Meeting will be convened and land cover have occurred at local to regional scales jointly with the International Monsoon Asia Integrated with significant impacts on the environment and Regional Study Program, the Northern Eurasia Earth social systems. These data have been used in part to Science Partnership Initiative, and the GEO Agricultur- initialize projections of future land-use change. How- al Monitoring Task. The meeting will focus on land-use ever, the impact of LCLUC on social systems has change in dryland systems and will be held in Almaty, received relatively little attention to date. How the Kazakhstan, September 15-20, 2009. research community should address social vulner- ability or resilience needs further consideration. meeting/workshop summaries

Landslide

On June 5, 2009, a mountainside collapsed in the Chongqing region of southern China. The landslide dropped some 420 million ft3 (12 million m3) onto several homes and an iron ore mine, trapping dozens of people. According to a June 18 report from Xinhua News Agency, 64 people remained missing. This photo-like image was captured by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) onboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) on June 17, 2009, revealing a giant scar of bare land that fans out toward the south on an otherwise vegetated landscape. To view this image in color please visit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=38978. Credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory. 34 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

CERES Science Team Meeting Summary Jim Closs, NASA Langley Research Center, Science Systems and Applications, Inc., [email protected]

The Spring 2009 meeting of the Clouds and the Earth’s In addition, the team heard a number of specific CERES Radiant Energy System (CERES) Science Team was held Co-Investigator reports, and there was a poster session April 28-30, 2009, at the City Center at Oyster Point focusing on the NPP Science Data Segment and the Marriott Hotel in Newport News, VA. Norman Loeb NPP Instrument Calibration Support Element (NICSE). [NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)—CERES Prin- cipal Investigator] hosted the meeting. A more detailed Norman Loeb [LaRC] presented an overview and summary and full presentations are available on the status of CERES, NASA, EOS, Senior Reviews, NPP CERES web site at: science.larc.nasa.gov/ceres. and NPOESS, and the Decadal Survey missions. He gave an overview of the CERES project structure, data Major objectives of the meeting included review and status processing flow and data products, and CERES on NPP of CERES instruments and data products including: and NPOESS.

• A series of updates on the status of CERES, NASA, CERES on Aqua successfully completed an End-of- the Earth Observing System, and the upcoming Prime Mission Review in December 2008, and a Terra/ 2009 Earth Science Senior Reviews; Aqua Senior Review proposal was submitted in March • A report on plans for putting CERES on the Na- 2009. The Senior Review panel meets in May, and pub- tional Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental lication of the panel’s report is due in June. New budget Satellite System (NPOESS) and its precursor, the guidelines and instructions to projects follows in July, NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP); and based on those instructions the projects will revise • A report on the status of Terra and Aqua shortwave their implementation plans to the Earth Science Direc- (SW)/longwave (LW)/total channel calibration for torate in August. Edition 3 of the CERES data; • An update on the status of CERES Flight Model-5 CERES FM5 completed integration and testing on the (FM5) and FM6; NPP spacecraft in November 2008, and the contractor • An update on Edition 3 cloud algorithm develop- with Northrop Grumman, has started to build FM6 ment and validation, as well as Clouds and Radia- from spare parts. The CERES team received a LaRC tive Swath (CRS) Edition 2 Validation; center award for completing FM5 integration on cost • A report on the status of the Synoptic (SYN), and on schedule. FM6 instrument delivery is scheduled Monthly Regional (AVG), and Monthly Zonal and for August 2012, with NPOESS-C1 launch scheduled Global (ZAVG) Radiative Fluxes and Clouds data for 2014. products—the Level 3 Gridded Version of Com- puted Top Of Atmosphere (TOA), Atmosphere Congratulations to CERES Clouds team lead Pat Min- (ATM), and Surface (SFC) fluxes; nis on being named a fellow by the American Geophys- • An update on efforts to extend Surface Averages ical Union, and to Tom Evert (Northrop Grumman (SRBAVG), International Satellite Cloud Climatol- Corp.) for receiving the NASA Distinguished Service ogy Project (ISCCP)-like-Geostationary-enhanced Award for his role in the design and development of the meeting/workshop summaries (GEO), and SYN/AVG/ZAVG data products CERES FM1–FM6. to August 2007, including overcoming (Multi- functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) calibration Kory Priestley [LaRC] gave an overview and update of challenges; the CERES Instrument Working Group, CERES flight • An update on ISCCP-like Moderate Resolution schedules, and Edition 3 data product study results. Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and GEO Radiometric performance requirements for CERES are data products; more stringent than for the Earth Radiation Budget Ex- • A report from the CERES Data Management periment (ERBE) by a factor of two, and requirements Team including a discussion of the instruments on per Ohring et. al.1 are more stringent than CERES by a Terra, Aqua, and the one planned for NPP; factor of 3–5—emphasizing the importance of instru- • An update from Atmospheric Sciences Data Center ment calibration. The CERES calibration/validation (ASDC); approach involves a rigorous pre-launch ground cali- • An overview of the NPP Science Data Segment; bration program, independent studies to characterize • An update on the Student’s Cloud Observations on-orbit performance, and a well understood approach Online (S’COOL) and S’COOL Rover observations; and 1 Report of Achieving Satellite Instrument Calibration for • A status report on the Goddard Earth Observing Climate Change (ASIC) Third Workshop, May 16-18, 2006, System—Model 5 (GEOS-5). National Conference Center, Lansdowne, VA. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 35

to data release. In the future CERES will fly in a single Norman Loeb, the SARB/SOFA Working Group led orbit with one instrument per spacecraft, eliminat- by Thomas Charlock, and the Cloud Working Group ing key direct comparison validation capabilities. This led by Patrick Minnis. increases the influence of radiometric performance in cost/schedule trades, and establishes collaborations with A pair of invited presentations highlighting exciting the National Institutes of Standards and Technology new science followed… (NIST) and other international agencies. Roy Spencer [University of Alabama/Huntsville] pre- The CERES team has started assembling the FM6 in- sented a talk on Separating Forcing from Feedback with strument, which will have enhanced on-board calibra- Phase Space Analysis, or Do Cloud Changes Cause Tem- tion equipment. A proposed Shortwave Spectral Inter- perature Changes…or the Other Way Around? His goal is nal Module (SSWIM) will include a legacy evacuated to diagnose climate sensitivity (feedback) from satellite tungsten lamp with a supplemental ‘blue’ light emit- data to determine whether manmade global warming ting diode (LED), and new photodiode monitor(s) for will be a catastrophe or is barely measurable. independent monitoring of source outputs. A Mirror Attenuator Mosaic (MAM) solar diffuser attenuates Spencer’s previous work showed that climate sensitivity is direct solar views, and provides a relative calibration probably being overestimated because natural cloud varia- of the shortwave channel and the SW portion of the tions causing temperature variations “looks like” positive total channel. feedback. He explained that feedback cannot be estimated when it is in response to time-varying radiative forcing Edition 3 data product studies involve incorporating all of temperature (i.e., radiative forcing obscures feedback) known physically based changes in gain and other calibra- unless forcing is known and removed. He speculates that tion coefficients for each instrument, and implementing climate models are too sensitive because they have been a method of placing all CERES instruments on the same built and validated assuming that the observed co-varia- radiometric scale at mission start. Results of these studies tions between radiative fluxes and temperature have been show that residual calibration errors in the Omega-1 stud- due to feedback alone. This will lead to an overestimate ies are dominated by spectral degradation of sensor optics of climate sensitivity, because clouds causing temperature in the reflected solar bands. This results in an artificial change will always look like positive feedback. In other decreasing trend in the reflected solar measurements, and words, fewer clouds causing warming ‘looks like’ positive divergence between daytime and nighttime Outgoing feedback if you assume causation in the wrong direction. Longwave Radiation (OLR) records with time. Joel Norris [Scripps Institute of Oceanography] spoke The next series of presentations provided updates on on Clouds in the Climate System: Why is This Such a Dif- various CERES subsystem activities. ficult Problem, and Where do We go from Here? His topic reinforced the 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate • Patrick Minnis [LaRC] reported on Edition 3 Change (IPCC) report on key uncertainties in climate cloud algorithm activities. change, namely that cloud feedbacks (particularly from • Dave Kratz and Shashi Gupta [Both at LaRC] low clouds) remain the largest source of uncertainty [to reported on Surface-Only Flux Algorithm (SOFA) climate sensitivity]. This is because no stable system to development. monitor global cloudiness and radiation on multidecadal • Thomas Charlock [LaRC] shared recent develop- time scales exists, and also because cloud and radiation meeting/workshop summaries ments in Surface and Atmosphere Radiation Bud- measurements are insufficiently integrated with associ- get (SARB) products. ated meteorological processes. • David Doelling [LaRC] reported on Time Inter- polation and Spatial Averaging (TISA) activities. Norris contends that meteorological memory can mix • Erika Geier [LaRC] reported on the activities of cloud radiative impact on temperature with cloud the CERES Data Management Team. response to temperature, and because of this it is es- • John Kusterer and Mike Little [Both at LaRC] sential to consider joint meteorological forcing of cloud gave an update on the Atmospheric Science Data and temperature. Similar mechanisms are at work with Center (ASDC). aerosols, but in this case, since clouds have a non- • Robert Wolfe [NASA Goddard Space Flight Cen- instantaneous response time, it is essential to consider ter] provided an update on the NPP Science Data meteorological history. He also explained that previous Segment (SDS). work has likely overestimated the impact of “thermody- • Lin Chambers [LaRC] provided an update on Stu- namics” (temperature and lapse rate change), and that dent’s Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL). atmospheric circulation change associated with global warming may instead play a leading role. To reduce Day two began with break out working group sessions, these uncertainties, he recommends correcting (to the including the Angular Modeling Working Group led by extent possible) the historical cloud and radiation re- 36 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

cord, integrating meteorological conditions with cloud tance of delivering Edition 2 gains and spectral response and radiation measurements, and assimilating cloud functions through the end of December 2008, and and radiation measurements into global models. finalizing gains for Edition 3 instrument improvements. The Clouds team is expected to deliver Edition 3-Beta-2 Following the two invited presentations, there were a in August 2009 and Edition 3 in March 2010. SOFA is series of Co-Investigator reports with updates on new expected to submit remaining validation papers, as is data products and science results. The topics discussed SARB with CRS methodology/validation papers. are summarized in the table below. Please refer to the URL listed above for more details on each presentation. The Fall 2009 CERES meeting will be held November 3-5, 2009 at the Marriott in Fort Collins, CO. Norman Loeb led a final wrap-up and discussion of action items from the meeting. He reiterated the impor-

Topic Speaker Institution MODIS Aerosol Assimilation for SARB David Fillmore Tech-X Corporation The GEOS-5 System and Future Plans Michelle Rienecker Goddard Space Flight Center Dynamically and Thermal-Dynamically Stratified Langley Research Center/Science Wenying Su Aerosol and Cloud Interaction Systems and Applications Inc. (SSAI) NOAA/National Environmental TOA Global Component Aerosol Direct Xuepeng Zhao Satellite, Data, and Info Service/ Radiative Effect National Climactic Data Center Variations in Terra Cloud Properties with SST Anomaly Zachary Eitzen Langley Research Center/SSAI Working with CERES data to test Jerry Potter University of California, Davis parameterizations in CAM Satellite observations of global and regional Bing Lin Langley Research Center energy budgets Global warming due to increasing absorbed National Center for Atmospheric John Fasullo solar radiation Research (NCAR) Langley Research Center/National NOAA 9 Radiation Budget Data Upgrade Lou Smith Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Overview of CALIPSO–CloudSat–CERES– Seiji Kato Langley Research Center MODIS merged product Radiative Flux Anomalies from 2000 to 2008 based on Takmeng Wong Langley Research Center Combined CERES and FLASHFLUX Data meeting/workshop summaries An Estimate of Infrared Radiation Forcing by Wenbo Sun Langley Research Center/SSAI Sub-Visual Ice Clouds Cloud Forcing of Surface Radiation Pam Mlynczak Langley Research Center/SSAI Cloud Properties from MODIS & CERES- Yue Li Texas A&M University MODIS Observations and CAM3 Simulations Arctic Clouds and Their Impact on Surface and Xao Dong University of North Dakota TOA Radiation Budget The Ed3-Beta2 Modified Algorithms for Foulung Chang Langley Research Center/NIA Multilayer Cloud Property Retrievals Effect of the Inhomogeneity of Ice Crystals on Retrieving Ice Cloud Optical Thickness and Yu Xie Texas A&M University Effective Particle Size Identifying Opaque and Non-Opaque Tropical Upper-Tropospheric Ice Clouds from Gang Hong Texas A&M University Measurements of MODIS 8.5, 11, and 12 µm Bands The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 37

ASDC at NASA Langley Releases New CERES Products

The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in collaboration with the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) announces the release of the following datasets:

CER_SSF_Aqua-FM3-MODIS_Ed2C-MOD-C4-Land-IGBP CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Ed2C-MOD-C4-Land-IGBP

Two years of Aqua data (January 1, 2004–December 31, 2005) are available for the specialized SSF Ed2C- MOD-C4-Land-IGBP dataset.

For this processing, the input scene ID map used is based on the MOD12C1 product, which is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived scene ID map based on MODIS Collection 4 yearly (2004) Level 3 global data. The only difference between the SSF Ed2C-MOD-C4-Land- IGBP and SSF Edition2C datasets is that SSF Edition2C used the 1990s-based International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) map supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), while SSF Ed2C- MOD-C4-Land-IGBP used the more recent MOD12C1 land cover map described above. The IGBP map has some influence on the selection of the Angular Distribution Model for inverting radiances measured by the CERES instrument to irradiances (radiative fluxes).

Both Flight Model 3 (FM3) and FM4 data were processed for January 2004–June 2004. After that, only data from the instrument predominantly in cross track for the data month are processed.

The Single Scanner Footprint Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA)/Surface Fluxes and Clouds (SSF) data product contains instantaneous footprint data that are unique for studying the role of clouds, aerosols, and radiation in climate.

On March 30, 2005, at approximately 18:42 Universal Time (UTC), the Aqua FM4 shortwave (SW) channel stopped functioning. Therefore, only the Aqua FM3 data were processed after this time.

Information about the CERES products, including products available, documentation, relevant links, sample software, tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the CERES data table: eosweb.larc.

nasa.gov/PRODOCS/ceres/table_ceres.html. meeting/workshop summaries

For information regarding our data holdings or for assistance in placing an order, please contact:

Atmospheric Science Data Center NASA Langley Research Center User and Data Services Mail Stop 157D, 2 S. Wright Street Hampton, VA 23681-2199 Phone: 757-864-8656 E-mail: [email protected] URL: eosweb.larc.nasa.gov announcement 38 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

First Take: Data Users Line Up to Give On-Camera Earth Observation Testimonials Kathryn Hansen, NASA Earth Science News Team, [email protected]

Set lights glaring and On May 12, 2008, a deadly earthquake paralyzed China’s Sichuan province and killed camera rolling, Guo tens of thousands. For the survivors, the ordeal did not end there. Aftershocks con- Huadong explained that tinued to rattle the region for months, heightening the risk from newly posed natural immediately after the hazards. To identify areas of risk, Guo Huadong of the Center for Earth Observation Sichuan earthquake, his and Digital Earth at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, turned to Earth observation data. center collected high-resolution synthetic-aperature Huadong’s experience was just one of 17 stories recorded at the 33rd International radar (SAR) and optical Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE) conference in Stresa, Italy. airborne remote sensing Earth science data users from business, government, and academia in 35 countries in the news data—as well as different converged at the Stresa Congress Center May 4-8, attending talks, plenary sessions satellite data—to take and workshops. a high-tech look at the affected areas. Tapping into the diverse group, producers of the Earth Observations Story Project— spearheaded by Lawrence Friedl of NASA Headquarters—collected “video testimonials” as part of an outreach effort to describe, explain, and celebrate the variety of ways people use Earth observations to benefit society.

If you had five minutes in front of the camera, what story would you tell?

Set lights glaring and camera rolling, Huadong explained that immediately after the Sichuan earthquake, his center collected high-resolution synthetic-aperature radar (SAR) and optical airborne remote sensing data—as well as different satellite data—to take a high-tech look at the affected areas. “At that time there was no communication and no transportation,” he said, “so Earth observation becomes a very important tool.”

Just two hours after the quake, the group was able to compare satellite observations from before and after the event. They analyzed the number and location of threats such as landslides and unstable barrier lakes—rivers that have been dammed up by landslides.

“With satellite data we can monitor the situation and make an analysis, create a map that classifies hazardous regions, and then create a report for decision makers in local and central government,” Huadong said. Those reports aided rescue efforts and decision-making about the safest locations to rebuild.

Robert Brakenridge shared a story about a different kind of natural hazard: floods. As director of the Dartmouth Flood Observatory in Hanover, N.H., Brakenridge uses

The 33rd International Sympo- sium on Remote Sensing of En- vironment (ISRSE) conference was held in Stresa, Italy. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 39

Robert Brakenridge shared a story about a different kind of natural hazard: floods. As director of the Dartmouth Flood Observatory in Hanover, N.H., Brakenridge uses satellite data to map past and present floods. The lengthy record is now illustrating which occurrences of flooding are anomalous, and the emerging picture could help relief groups decide where to direct limited flood aid resources.

Others told stories about using Earth observations to protect Russia’s boreal forests by influencing where timber is collected, or to advance fledgling environmental monitoring projects in Madagascar. A common theme throughout the interviews was the importance of extending the data record into the future.

“We have plans to collect data again,” Huadong said about the Sichuan earthquake. “How has the environment changed in a year?” The new data will have implications for future building, which comes at a time when some of the 1 million affected in the province are waiting for a permanent, safe place to live. in the news

Look for more information about these and other Earth Observations Story Project interviews coming soon online.

Ekaterina Tsybikova of Trans- parent World, a non-profit and non-governmental partnership, speaks with Kathryn Hansen of the NASA Earth Science News Team (back to camera) about how her organization uses images of Earth from space to monitor, map, and help preserve Russian boreal forests and protected areas. Tsybikova was one of 17 users of Earth observation data who faced the camera to record their story at the May 2009 International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment in Stresa, Italy. Credit: Mark Malanoski. 40 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

South Carolina Wildfire Offers Langley Researchers Close-up Look at Smoke Patrick Lynch, NASA Langley Research Center, [email protected]

When a pile of burning debris got out of control and of the HSRL,” Szykman said. “You never know when sparked a wildfire north of Myrtle Beach, SC, in late a fire is going to start and we wanted to test our readi- April, a team of researchers from NASA Langley’s Sci- ness. Though unfortunately this was our opportunity.” ence Directorate jumped into action. The HSRL team had recently finished flights used The group, including scientists from NASA and the to validate the measurements made by the Langley- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), had managed Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Pathfinder Satellite been watching for an opportunity to collect real-world Observation (CALIPSO) satellite, and was able to react data on wildfires with a High Spectral Resolution Li- quickly when the South Carolina fire broke out, Szyk- dar (HSRL) on-board a King Air B200. This specially man said. The lidar was also used last year in the Arctic in the news instrumented aircraft takes vertical measurements of Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from aerosols—in the case of fires, smoke—that helps re- Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) campaign to observe searchers understand how much smoke is produced aerosols and smoke in the Arctic and, in collaboration by fires and how high smoke plumes rise and move with the EPA, to sample pollution in California’s San through the atmosphere. Researchers need data on Joaquin Valley in 2007. smoke plumes and wildfire emissions to better understand their impact on regional air quality and the The Highway 31 fire ultimately burned about 19,600 climate system. acres, forced the evacuation of about 4,000 people, and destroyed about 70 homes while damaging even more. The morning of Friday, April 24, two days after the fire The fire burned on private and state-owned lands made began to spread, pilot Les Kagey, operations engineer up of pine forest with peaty soils that can smolder long Mike Wusk, and lidar researcher Ray Rogers lifted off after the fire is largely contained—a common ecosystem from Hampton, VA, for a day of criss-crossing smoke in the Southeast U.S. The fire burned more intensely on plumes from the Highway 31 fire. The research derived Thursday, prior to the lidar overflight, but Friday’s flight from this study, which is funded by the EPA, will be still captured intense flare-ups and smoldering fuels, used to improve air pollution models that the agency which are crucial to piecing together a complete picture uses for policy and regulatory decisions, said Jim Szyk- of fire emissions. man, an EPA scientist from the National Exposure Research Laboratory in the Office of Research and De- An afternoon of flying over the fire’s smoke plume velopment, who is stationed at Langley. produced data on the plume’s height, the amount of aerosols—smoke, soot and haze—generated by the fire, “We’ve been talking about how we’d respond to an op- and how the aerosols eventually dispersed in the atmo- portunity like this for some time—a quick deployment sphere. The data from the research flight will be useful,

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina “Highway 31 Fire” – April 24, 2009

These vertical profile images, taken the 2 afternoon of Friday, April 24 using the 0 Langley Science Directorate’s High Altitude (km) Spectral Resolution Lidar, show how the -77.6 plumes of smoke from the Myrtle Beach -77.8 wildfire moved up and away from the -78 source. The data will be used to improve -78.2 EPA models of fire emissions. To view -78.4 image in color please visit: www.nasa.gov/ -78.6 topics/earth/features/myrtlebeachfires.html. Myrtle Beach, SC Longitude (deg) -78.8 Smoke (33.71°N, 78.90W) Credit: NASA HSRL Team. Plume -79 33 -79.2 33.5 -79.4 34 34.5 -79.6 35 Latitude (deg) 35.5 0.1 1 10 Aerosol Backscatter (M/m • sr)(532 nm) The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 41

development for attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

These data and future CALIPSO and HSRL data will be used as part of a larger collaboration between NASA, EPA, Michigan Tech Research Institute, University of Louisville, and the USFS to enhance the inclusion of fire emissions in the National Emissions Inventory and the height of smoke plumes in the CMAQ. Current climate change scenarios predict fire severity will increase, making it increasingly important to understand the impact of smoke and aerosols on air quality, human health, and the climate.

Langley researchers Mike Wusk, Ray Rogers, and pilot Les Kagey flew “We continually try to improve how our models per- a King Air B200 equipped with a High Spectral Resolution Lidar over in the news the wildfires in South Carolina to measure the behavior of the smoke form,” Szykman said. The data from the South Carolina plume produced by a blaze that ultimately burned 19,600 acres of flight “will give us a better understanding of how well land. To view photo in color please visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/ the modeled data predicts the real data we gathered features/myrtlebeachfires.html. Credit: Mike Wusk/NASA HSRL Team. from actual fires.” and are a precursor of research the EPA and Langley’s Science Directorate, including researcher Amber Soja, have in store for the 2009 fire season, Szykman said. The data will also be combined with other observations and measurements—including fire temperature and land-use practices to learn more about how fires burn in various ecosystems.

The EPA develops annual fire emission estimates in conjunction with state and local agencies and other federal agencies including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Fires are one of many important emission sources that are inputs to EPA’s regional chemical transport model known as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The model is used by the A camera mounted underneath the King Air B200 snatched this aerial image of the fires. To view photo in color please visit: EPA for environmental management and policy activi- www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/myrtlebeachfires.html. ties including setting regulations and regional strategy Credit: NASA HSRL Team.

Wildfires burned along the South Carolina coastline on April 22–23, 2009, leaping over a highway and heading for a heavily populated area in North Myrtle Beach. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradi- ometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image at 12:17 Hotspots local time (16:17 UTC) on April Smoke Plume 23, 2009. The white outlines in this image mark hotspots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with the fires. The plume of pale gray smoke blows east-southeastward over the ocean. To view this image in color please visit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view. php?id=38303. Credit: NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response Team. 42 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth Alan Buis, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, [email protected] Steve Cole, NASA Headquarters, [email protected]

On June 29, 2009, NASA and Japan released a new in some deserts,” said Michael Kobrick, Shuttle Radar digital topographic map of Earth that covers more of Topography Mission project scientist at JPL. “NASA is our planet than ever before. The map was produced with working to combine the ASTER data with that of the detailed measurements from NASA’s Terra spacecraft. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and other sources to produce an even better global topographic map.” The new global digital elevation model of Earth was created from nearly 1.3 million individual stereo-pair imag- NASA and METI are jointly contributing the ASTER es collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Ther- topographic data to the Group on Earth Observa- mal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or (ASTER), tions, an international partnership headquartered at the in the news instrument aboard Terra. NASA and Japan’s Ministry World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Swit- of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) developed the zerland, for use in its Global Earth Observation System dataset. It is avail- of Systems. This able online to us- system of systems is a ers everywhere at collaborative, inter- no cost. national effort to share and integrate “This is the most Earth observation complete, consis- data from many tent global digital different instru- elevation data yet ments and systems made available to to help monitor the world,” said and forecast global Woody Turner, environmental ASTER Program changes. This image was created by processing and stereo-correlating the 1.3 million-scene ASTER Scientist at NASA archive of optical images. Headquarters in NASA, METI, Washington. “This unique global set of data will serve and the U.S. Geological Survey validated the data, with users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines support from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence that need elevation and terrain information.” Agency and other collaborators. The data will be distributed by NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active According to Mike Abrams, ASTER Science Team Archive Center at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the new Resources Observation and Science Data Center in topographic information will be of value throughout Sioux Falls, S.D., and by METI’s Earth Remote Sensing the Earth sciences and has many practical applications. Data Analysis Center in Tokyo. “ASTER’s accurate topographic data will be used for engineering, energy exploration, conserving natural re- ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments sources, environmental management, public works de- launched on Terra in December 1999. ASTER acquires sign, firefighting, recreation, geology, and city planning, images from the visible to the thermal infrared wave- to name just a few areas,” Abrams said. length region, with spatial resolutions ranging from about 50–300 ft (15–90 m). A joint science team from Previously, the most complete topographic set of data the U.S. and Japan validates and calibrates the instru- publicly available was from NASA’s Shuttle Radar ment and data products. The U.S. science team is lo- Topography Mission. That mission mapped 80% of cated at JPL. Earth’s landmass, between 60° N–57° S. The new AS- TER data expand coverage to 99%, from 83° N– 83° For visualizations of the new ASTER topographic data, S. Each elevation measurement point in the new data is visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20090629.html. 30 ft (98 m) apart. Data users can download the ASTER global digital ele- “The ASTER data fill in many of the voids in the vation model at: wist.echo.nasa.gov/~wist/api/imswelcome shuttle mission’s data, such as in very steep terrains and and www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 43

Satellites Guide Relief to Earthquake Victims Janet Anderson, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, [email protected]

On May 28 at 2:24 a.m. local time, a deadly earthquake Breaking news stories revealed that the worst infrastruc- rocked Honduras, killing seven people and injuring tural damage was restricted, in general, to Honduras and several others, demolishing homes, damaging scores of Belize, so the SERVIR team at CATHALAC began to other buildings, and sending terrified residents running assemble baseline imagery and data for a bird’s eye view through the streets. of those areas. They contacted Stuart Frye of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and asked him to arrange “I woke up immediately, and all I could do was hug my satellite imagery. youngest son and pray,” says Dalia Martinez of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “After a few minutes, my family The next day, Frye notified the team that the Taiwanese and I went outside, where my neighbors were already would image the hardest hit areas by using their Formosat-2 gathered, likewise terrified about what happened but satellite. In fact, the Taiwanese were already in action.

grateful we were all okay. Since then, we’ve been sleeping in the news with flashlights and telephones within reach, because the Cheng-Chien Liu of the National Cheng-Kung Univer- aftershocks have been strong.” sity (NCKU) of Taiwan explains: “President Ma Ying- Jeou of Taiwan and his delegation were visiting Belize Fortunately for Martinez and other shaken residents, the night the earthquake struck. As news of the quake disaster officials knew exactly where to send help. A spread across the Pacific, all Taiwanese were shocked state-of-the-art Earth observation system called SER- and very anxious to confirm their safety and that of the VIR—which is Spanish for “to serve”—directed them to people who lived in the countries hit.” the hardest hit areas. “We knew the fastest way to capture images of the di- SERVIR is a joint effort of NASA, the Center for the saster area would be to use Formosat-2. So I issued an Humid Tropics of Latin America & the Caribbean (CA- urgent request for assistance to Dr. An-Ming Wu, the THALAC), the U.S. Agency for International Develop- Deputy General Director of National Space Organiza- ment, the Regional Center for the Mapping of Resources tion (NSPO). Even though it was the Dragon Boat for Development, and other partners. The system uses holiday and all Taiwanese were enjoying their family satellite imagery to zero in on places where a flood, fire, reunion, Dr. Wu called the Formosat-2 mission opera- hurricane, or earthquake has left destruction in its wake. tion team to rush back to the control center. The three Team members combine satellite data with ground ob- critical images were taken in record time!” servations, and display (for all to view) a near real-time map of crisis points. At a glance, decision-makers can Dan Irwin, SERVIR Project Director at NASA’s Marshall see the locations of most severe damage so they can send Space Flight Center, recalls the lightning-fast response: “I help in a hurry. was in a bus in Berlin when I received an email from Dr. Liu telling me they had the images ready to send. It was “The Honduras earthquake was a perfect example of early Saturday morning in Panama, but I called and woke SERVIR at its best,” says Emil Cherrington, Senior Emil [Cherrington] up anyway to let him know.” Scientist at SERVIR’s regional operational facility at CATHALAC in Panama. “It was like a chain reaction. “Dr. Liu was the one who lost sleep,” says Cherrington. People from agencies and organizations in several coun- “He stayed up until 2 a.m. Taiwan time sending the tries worked together after the earthquake to pinpoint images to our servers at CATHALAC. The data volume precise locations where support was needed.” was huge, so the transfer was slow, but he wouldn’t go home until he was sure we received all the images.”

August 3, 2002 May 29, 2009

The earthquake damaged three bridges in Honduras, including the collapse of the central segment of the Democracy Bridge pictured in the before and after images above. Credit: Ikonos satellite image [left] courtesy of GeoEye. Formosat-2 image [right] provided by Cheng-Chien Liu [NCKU] and An-Ming Wu [NSPO]. 44 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

EOS Scientists in the News Kathryn Hansen, NASA Earth Science News Team, [email protected]

Dev Niyogi on Urban Sprawl and Storm Intensity, mer, but William Patzert (NASA JPL) does not think May 21; Earth & Sky Radio. In a NASA-funded study, this El Niño will likely be a major event. researchers including Dev Niyogi (Purdue University) found that intermittent rain in the days before Atlanta’s Scientists Make Breakthrough in Assessing Marine rare urban 2008 tornado, provided temporary drought Phytoplankton Health, June 9; U.S. News & World relief, but also may have moistened some areas enough Report. Researchers including Michael Behrenfeld (Or- to create favorable conditions for severe storms to form egon State University) have succeeded for the first time and intensify. in measuring the physiology of marine phytoplankton through NASA satellite measurements of its fluores- Satellite Used to Aid in Crop Forecasting, May 27; cence, which will help scientists to gain a reasonably United Press International. NASA is using satellite data accurate picture of the ocean’s health and productivity to make accurate estimates of soil moisture, thereby about every week, all over the planet. improving global crop forecasting; the new modeling product improves the accuracy of soil moisture fore- Global Hawk UAV Adapted for Environmental Re- casts by 5% over previous methods, according to John search, June 15; Aero-News.net. NASA and Northrop Bolten (NASA GSFC). Grumman Corporation have unveiled the first Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system to be used for environ- NASA Research Reveals Soybean Damage Near $2 mental science research, heralding a new application for Billion, May 28; Web Newswire. Researchers including the world’s first fully autonomous high-altitude, long- Jack Fishman (NASA LaRC) and Jack Creilson (for- endurance aircraft; Kevin Petersen (NASA DFRC) mer NASA LaRC) looked at five years of soybean yields, says the aircraft represent the first non-military use of this surface ozone and satellite measurements of tropo- remarkable robotic aircraft system. sphere ozone levels in three Midwest states and found that rising surface ozone concentrations are damaging Using Weather Satellites to Predict Epidemics?, June nearly $2 billion in annual U.S. soybean crops. 20; National Public Radio. In September 2006, Assaf Anyamba (NASA GSFC) and his group predicted The Seldom-Seen Devastation of Climate Change, heavy rainfall over East Africa and the first human case June 1; Salon. “Climate Change: Picturing the Sci- of Rift Valley Fever followed in mid-December, show-

EOS scientists in the news ence,” a new book by climate scientist Gavin Schmidt ing that weather satellites are a powerful tool in curbing (NASA GISS) and photographer Joshua Wolfe, aims the spread of disease. to alter the out of sight, out of mind response to climate change by providing a rich photographic record of a Report: Warming to Hit State Hard, June 26; The warming world. Press-Enterprise (Southern California). The Inland region and other parts of the Southwest are warming faster Ready for Hurricane Season? NASA Is, June 1; than most of the nation because of human-induced cli- WDBO-AM Orlando. Kennedy Space Center is ready mate change, and residents there can expect the result- for hurricane season, and Allard Beutel (NASA KSC) ing heat waves, wildfires, and water shortages to worsen, says the center plans for just about anything weather according to a new White House report on global related, in case the Space Shuttle needs to be moved off warming, and William Patzert (NASA/JPL) called the the launch pad. report frightening—and a conservative estimate of just how bad things will be. Predictions for the 2009 Hurricane Season, June 2; Technology Review (blog). Lower-than-normal sea-surface NASA Sends Into Orbit Sophisticated Weather Satel- temperatures could “starve” developing hurricanes of lite, Meant to Track Hurricanes and Tornadoes, June their driving force, meaning fewer hurricanes, but peak 27; Los Angeles Times. A new weather satellite—second hurricane season is not until late summer and early fall of the more advanced Geostationary Operational Envi- and William Patzert (NASA JPL) says that oceanic and ronmental Satellites (GOES)—rocketed into orbit, giv- atmospheric conditions can change dramatically. ing forecasters another powerful tool for tracking hurricanes and tornadoes; deputy project manager Andre Conditions Brewing for Possible El Niño, June 6; Dress (NASA GSFC) called the satellite network … the Union-Tribune (San Diego). An El Niño could bring most sophisticated weather satellites that we actually have relief to drought-stricken San Diego County this sum- on this planet ... off this planet. The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 45

Wayne Esaias on Honeybee Behavior, June 29; Earth Drones Seek Storms’ Secrets, June 29; Florida Today. & Sky Radio. Wayne Esaias (NASA GSFC) has been NASA plans a test flight in September of the Global using satellite data to track plant and pollinator rela- Hawk predator drone, with hopes of having it ready for tionships across the United States, an idea he got after next year’s hurricane season; program scientist Ramesh discovering that the bees he keeps in Maryland were Kakar (NASA HQ) explains the benefits of a drone making honey earlier and earlier in the year. compared to manned aircraft and describes the instruments it will carry. Radar Lets NASA See Beneath Surface of Faults, June 29; San Francisco Chronicle. Andrea Donnellan Linking Climate and Habitability, June 29; Astrobiol- (NASA/JPL) and Eric Fielding (NASA/JPL) are us- ogy Magazine. In a study led by Cynthia Rosenzweig ing a new airborne radar to see what lies beneath the (NASA GISS), published last year in Nature, scientists surface of California’s San Andreas and Hayward faults, for the first time linked the effects of climate change providing information that researchers hope will lead specifically to human activity. to improved quake forecasting, updated building codes, and emergency planning to meet seismic hazards.

NASA and USGS Announce Availability of Global Land Survey 2005 Data

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are pleased to announce that the Global Land Survey (GLS) 2005 dataset is now essentially complete, and is available for download from USGS Earth Resources Observa- tion and Science (EROS). Instructions for download are provided below.

The GLS2005 offers global, orthorectified Landsat coverage centered on 2005, designed to support long-term mapping of land-cover and vegetation trends. The dataset is composed of a single leaf-on, cloud-minimized image for each WRS-2 path/row location. In cases where Landsat-7 imagery have been used, multiple images have been merged and radiometrically adjusted to minimize gaps caused by the failure of the Landsat-7 scan-line corrector. Images were selected to optimize seasonal timing [vegetation greenness derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)] and to minimize cloud cover. These data, together with those from the earlier GLS epochs (1975, 1990, 2000) offer a unique resource for assessing changes in the terrestrial environment during the last 35 years.

Currently about 140 images remain to be added to the GLS2005 dataset, primarily over Indonesia and Brazil. EOS scientists in the news As these images are processed they will be available through the GLOVIS interface (see below). Additional information on the Global Land Survey project may be found at the GLS web site: gls.umd.edu.

The GLS2005 dataset may be cited as: “USGS and NASA, 2009, Global Land Survey 2005, Sioux Falls, SD USA: USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS).” Citations for the generation of the dataset are as follows:

Gutman, G., Byrnes, R., Masek, J., Covington, S., Justice, C., Franks, S., and R. Headley, “Towards monitoring land-cover and land-use changes at a global scale: The Global Land Survey 2005”, Photogrammetric Engi- neering & Remote Sensing, 74, 6-10, 2008.

Franks, S., Masek, J.G., Headley, R.M.K., Gasch, J., and Arvidson, T., “Large Area Scene Selection Interface (LASSI). Methodology for selecting Landsat imagery for the Global Land Survey 2005”, Photogrammetric Engi- neering and Remote Sensing, in press.

Individual GLS scenes may be downloaded from the USGS Global Visualization Viewer: glovis.usgs.gov. At the top under “Select Collection” you can choose “Global Land Survey” and “GLS 2005” from the pull-down menus.

Bulk distribution of the GLS on hard media will be available to order through the University of Maryland Global Land-Cover Facility (GLCF; www.landcover.org). An orders page is available so that single epochs or the entire collection can be purchased. USB2 hard drives will be purchased through GLCF as part of the order.

Contact: Dr. Jeffrey Masek, (301) 614-6629,[email protected] announcement 46 The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4

NASA Science Mission Directorate – Science Education Update Ming-Ying Wei, [email protected], NASA Headquarters Liz Burck, [email protected], NASA Headquarters Theresa Schwerin, [email protected], Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES)

Astronomy and Earth Science Workshops for In partnership with state departments of education, K-4 Teachers Endeavor Fellows take five graduate courses in an inno- vative, LIVE (online) format from the comfort of their Millbrae, CA, September 12–13 home or school and learn to apply research-based peda- gogical strategies and cutting-edge Science, Technology, A weekend of hands-on workshops and informative sci- Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) content to their ence talks will be offered as part of the 120th anniver- classroom contexts while becoming a part of a special sary meeting of the nonprofit Astronomical Society of network of like-minded educators across the Nation. the Pacific. These workshops will take place at the Wes- tin Hotel near the San Francisco Airport. The program Endeavor Fellows will be awarded a NASA Endeavor will include space science and Earth science workshops Certificate in STEM Education from Teachers College, for K-4 educators, as well as sessions for educators who Columbia University. In addition, graduate credits are work in informal settings (such as museums, nature awarded from other regionally-accredited partners in centers, amateur astronomy clubs, and community or- higher education. For more information, visit: www. ganizations.) us-satellite.net/endeavor/index.cfm.

No background in astronomy will be assumed or re- Earth Science Week K-9 Student Contests quired. Experienced educators from the Society’s staff, education update from NASA and National Science Foundation (NSF) Entries Due: October 16 sponsored projects, and from educational institutions around the country will be presenting. Only a lim- American Geological Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three ited number of spaces will be available, and, thanks to national contests for Earth Science Week 2009. The pho- conference supporters, registration for each day of the tography, visual arts, and essay contests allow both stu- workshop will be only $39. Thanks to the support of the dents and the general public to participate in the celebra- Spitzer Space Telescope Science Center, a limited number tion, learn about Earth science, and compete for prizes. of travel-support scholarships (of up to $300 per person) will be made available for educators. The photography contest, open to all ages, focuses on How Climate Shapes My World. The visual arts contest, Sunday afternoon will feature a special non-technical titled The Climate Where I Live, is open to students in lecture series about the search for life among the stars, grades K-5. Finally, students in grades 6-9 are eligible to with some of the leading scientists from the Search for enter the essay contest: Climate Connections. Essays of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute describing up to 300 words should describe how climate interacts the scientific experiments now under way to identify with Earth’s systems–geosphere, hydrosphere, atmo- life beyond Earth. sphere, and biosphere—in your area.

For more information, visit www.astrosociety.org/ The first-place prize for each contest is $300 and a copy events/2009mtg/workshops.html. of AGI’s Faces of Earth 2-DVD package. To learn more about these contests, including how to enter, visit www. NASA Endeavor Science Teacher Certificate to Begin earthsciweek.org/contests. Accepting Applications for Cohort 2 NASA Earth Observatory World of Change Applications Accepted July 1–September 30, 2009 Inspired by its 10th anniversary, The Earth Observatory The NASA Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Proj- has pulled together a special series of NASA satellite im- ect awards one-year fellowships each year to over 40 ages documenting how our world has changed during current and prospective teachers. The Project is admin- the previous decade. The latest installment examines the istered by U.S. Satellite Laboratory, Inc. Funding autho- fluctuations in sea ice surrounding Antarctica. View it rization for the Project is provided through the NASA and others at earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/World- Endeavor Teacher Fellowship Trust Fund as a tribute to OfChange/. the dedicated crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

The Earth Observer July - August 2009 Volume 21, Issue 4 47

EOS Science Calendar Global Change Calendar

August 11–13 August 16–19, 2009 2nd HyspIRI Science Workshop, Pasadena, CA Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar on Determina- URL: hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov tion of Atmospheric Aerosol Properties Using Satellite Measurements, Bad Honnef, Germany September 14–17 URL: http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/eng/events/ Aura Science Team Meeting, Netherlands. URL: aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ August 16–20 238 American Chemical Society National Meeting and November 5–6 Exposition: Chemistry and Global Security: Challenges GRACE Science Team Meeting, Austin, TX. and Opportunities, Washington, DC. URL: www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/GSTM/ URL: portal.acs.org/

September 9–10 August 31–September 4 SMAP Applications Workshop, Silver Spring, MD. World Climate Conference-3, Geneva, Switzerland. URL: smap.jpl.nasa.gov/events/index.cfm?FuseAction= URL: www.wmo.int/wcc3/ ShowNews&NewsID=12 September 15–20 September 18 Land Cover Land Use Change Science Team Meeting, OMI Science Team Meeting, Leiden, the Netherlands. Almaty, Kazakhstan. URL: lcluc.umd.edu/ URL: www.knmi.nl/omi/research/project/meetings/ostm14/ index.php [Takes place the day after the Aura Science October 18–21 Team Meeting.] Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Port- land, OR. URL: www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/ November 3–5 CERES Science Team Meeting, Fort Collins, CO. November 3–5 science calendars URL: science.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/meetings.html 6th GOES Users’ Conference, Monona Terrace Con- vention Center, Madison, Wisconsin. Contact: Dick. November 3–5 [email protected] or [email protected] HDF-EOS Workshop XIII: Closing the Gap— URL: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes_r/meetings/guc2009 Harnessing the Power of HDF Through Established Technologies. URL: hdfeos.net/workshops/ws13/ November 13–14 workshop_thirteen.php GEOSS Workshop XXXI, Washington, DC. URL: www.ieee-earth.org/Conferences/GEOSSWorkshops

December 14–18 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Fran- cisco, CA. URL: www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/ Code 610 PRSRT STD National Aeronautics and Space Administration Postage and Fees Paid National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center Permit 396 Greenbelt, MD 20771

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